Trust
by Princess Dystopia
Summary: With the Chuunin exams rapidly approaching and tensions rise as a certain Suna Shinobi shows his face in Konoha, how will Haketa deal with working full-time and helping build her sister's dreams while at the same time falling for this man? [KankuroxOC]
1. Bigger Than You

"Haketa! Delivery!" Mother called from inside the warm building. Taking a deep breath of fresh air, I sprinted inside, grabbing the plastic bag with one hand and my younger sister with the other. I took Kyan with me everywhere. She needed to get out sometimes.

Her small hand lifted to me a piece of paper with an address written on it. My grandfather's sloppy handwriting was scattered about on it, indicating I would be dropping the food off to a friend of my mother's.

"This isn't so bad, is it?" I questioned my sister, knowing I wouldn't receive an audible response. "Couldn't you live the rest of your life making deliveries?" She only nodded, staring up at the academy building.

Pity hit my gut. Because I never made it as a Kunoichi, Mother automatically put down Kyan's dreams of ever making it. Not because she lacked the ability, but because she was mute. I personally believed Mother was afraid.

I took my hand from hers and wiped the sweat off my blouse. Konohagakure was a very hot village. It felt like summer almost all year round, except for the winter months. Once the snow melts away, however, the sun comes back with a fiery vengeance.

"Haketa!" a screeching voice called from behind me. We stopped walking and turned to face Ino, a friend of mine who was running toward us, waving a hand above her head.

My friendship with Ino was often up and down. When I was younger, I had been in a best friend trio with her and Haruno Sakura. Then the Uchiha survivor got in the way and ruined our routine. Sakura and Ino began fighting over him and I, who had no romantic feelings toward Sasuke, was stuck in the middle. Even though I tried my hardest to stay out of their drama, I still occasionally found myself being mad at one or the other for the cruel things they would do and say.

"Hi, Ino," I said, greeting her with a smile. Kyan silently waved her hand.

"Hi, guys," she replied breathlessly. Digging into her pocket, she pulled out a folded piece of paper and handed it to my sister, seeing as I had no free hands available. "Could you give this to your mom? Its from mine."

"Yeah, no problem."

"Ino, hurry up! We're going to be late!" her teammate, Chouji, shouted from down the long pathway we'd been walking on. Chouji was a familiar in my family's restaurant.

"Late for what?" I questioned, exposing my pocket for Kyan to slip the note into.

"Registration," Ino explained when Chouji and her other teammate, Shikamaru, come closer. "Asuma-sensei thinks we should make passing the Chuunin exams our next goal, but of course, he told us late."

"So we'll probably be the last ones registering," Shikamaru added, the normal semi-depressing tone in his voice. "They've practically already started. The Shinobi from the other villages are already arriving."

"Well," I said, tightening my grip on the bag, "you guys should get going, then. Good luck and don't die!"

They each nodded to me and walked back the direction from where they came. I glanced down at Kyan, whose shoulders were slumped in a disheartened way. I ruffled her hair gently.

"Someday, you'll be in their place. I promise."

()()()

"Thank you, girls."

"Thank _you_, ma'am," I responded, almost drooling over the large tip for the delivery she slipped into my hand. Kyan bowed to her slightly before the door shut and we strolled away, smiling like crazed idiots.

On our way back to the restaurant, I wondered if I should donate our money to my grandpa. He loved donations, especially when it involved large sums of money. But we had earned that money ourselves, walking two or three miles in the blazing heat.

"CRAZY WITCH!"

I groaned as Kyan took off running at the sound of her best friend's voice. Konohamaru was being beaten to a pulp by Sakura just a few yards away. Naruto was lying on the ground with a bloody nose and I smiled to myself, secretly loving the fact that Sakura was a violent person.

Once Konohamaru had been taken care of, the pink-haired girl huffed and turned her attention toward me while Kyan rushed to his aide. "Oh, Haketa, I didn't see you there," she said innocently. "How are you?"

"Amazing," I answered with an honest grin. "I think I already know what happened here."

"…fire-breathing hag," Konohamaru whispered to Naruto, rubbing a red bump on his forehead. "Is she even a real girl?"

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" Sakura roared, dashing after the terrified boy.

She stopped short, though, when he collided into a large male dressed in a black suit and purple kabuki paint on his face. Tied to his back, he had something that looked like a wrapped mummy. Next to him stood a blonde girl with a gigantic folded fan on her back.

"Watch where you're going!" Konohamaru shouted. Everyone gasped when the man picked him up by the front of his shirt and held him near his face, as if he weighted less than air.

"That hurt, brat," he mumbled in a deep, intimidating voice. Just before Kyan could begin running to her friend's aide, I swooped her up in my arms, trying to resist her struggling. The man in black turned his attention to us. "Another little monster, huh?"

"Kankuro, stop. You're going to get us in trouble," the girl warned, gazing at a floating bird in a bored fashion.

"I-It was my fault," Sakura stuttered. "I was the one chasing him." To me, she whispered, "Headbands."

They both were wearing them, but they weren't the uniform Konohagakure headband. I couldn't quite remember where I'd seen one like theirs before.

"I'm just going to play with it a little," Kankuro teased, shaking Konohamaru gently. "We have time before he gets here."

"PUT HIM DOWN!" Naruto snapped, running full-speed at him.

Kankuro, with his free hand, moved his fingers in a quick jerking motion, and Naruto slipped off his feet as if he had suddenly ran onto a bank of ice. I couldn't hold Kyan any longer; she jumped out of my arms and hurried to Naruto, who was groaning about his back being in pain. Meanwhile, Kankuro howled in laughter.

"Is that the best Konoha's Genin can do? You guys are wimps!"

I glared at him, doubling my hands into fists. "Put him down, you freak!" I shrieked, taking a step closer. "Or I'll make you!" Kyan gave me a horrified look, knowing I was bluffing. There was no way I could take on an actual Shinobi, but I just prayed he wouldn't call me on it.

"Oh, okay," he said, slowly lowering Konohamaru. "I definitely don't want to make you angry. You could probably kick my ass."

Everyone seemed to sigh in relief and relax a little when the small boy's feet touched the ground. But Kankuro smirked and hoisted him up again, drawing his fist back.

"Just kidding!"

I screamed and covered my eyes when his fist sprung toward Konohamaru's face. All I heard was a rock hit the ground. I allowed my hands to fall to my sides to see that Kankuro was holding his wrist, his eyes narrowed on a figure sitting on a nearby tree branch.

"Sasuke!" Sakura called in pure happiness. I'd never been so thankful to see him in my entire life.

"_Another _one?" Kankuro breathed. "Come down here, little chipmunk!"

Sasuke only glared at him until Kankuro took the mummy off his back. It seemed to already be unwrapping itself. The girl next to him shook her head, taking a few steps back.

"Kankuro, don't."

The voice made all of us jump. I hadn't noticed it, but on the opposite side of the tree on another branch, a boy had appeared hanging upside down. He had crimson hair and an odd sea foam green eye color. A gourd was strapped securely to his back and I noticed a small symbol on his forehead.

"You're a disgrace to our village," the boy told him. "Its pathetic that you still lose your tempter in a fight with children. Have you already forgotten why we came here?"

"But Gaara, they started it!" Kankuro defended himself, sounding extremely immature. "That little brat slammed into me, and that girl with the black hair threatened me." He pointed an accusing finger in my direction.

"Shut up," Gaara hissed, "or I'll kill you."

Everything fell dead silent then. Kankuro shuddered and I could almost hear my heartbeat in my head. From somewhere in the distance, we heard a woman screaming in laughter.

"R-Right," Kankuro finally said, breaking the silence. "It was my fault. S-Sorry, Gaara. Won't happen again."

Gaara turned his head to look at Sasuke with the same emotionless gaze. "I apologize on his behalf," he said insincerely. A gust of light brown sand engulfed him and transported him to the middle of Kankuro and the blonde girl. "Let's go."

"Wait!" Sakura called. "Judging from your headbands, you three are from Sunagakure. Your village and ours are allies, but according to the treaty, your Shinobi can't enter without authorization! Why are you here?"

"The Chuunin exams," the girl said simply. "Haven't you been told?"

"Kakashi-sensei hasn't said anything about that," Naruto whispered.

Knowing they were distracted by their own conversation, I grabbed my sister firmly so she wouldn't struggle against me and walked past the Suna trio. As I passed Kankuro, we made brief eye contact. Although he was soon behind me, I could feel his gaze on my back.


	2. No Problem

Lazy days at the restaurant are favorites of Kyan and mine. When hardly anyone comes to eat, it gives us a break from taking orders and returning food. We just get to sit in the back and braid each other's hair or make each other look ridiculous.

What else are a fourteen and a thirteen year old supposed to do when they aren't working?

As I played with Kyan's hair, braiding it as elegantly as I could, she grabbed a nearby pencil and scribbled on her paper. "_I want to do your hair now."_

"All right, fine," I told her, finishing off her hair in a rubber band. We changed positions, so that I was the one sitting in front of her, and she went to work on my hair.

Not even thirty seconds later, my grandfather yelled to us that there was a customer. Kyan hurried to finish and I swept out with a pencil and a writing tablet. "Can I take your- Oh, its you."

The jerk from yesterday was sitting alone right in front of me. Kankuro, wasn't it?

"Well, that isn't a very nice welcoming," Kankuro said sarcastically with an annoying smirk on his face. "By the way, nice hair."

I had forgotten Kyan fixed up my hair. I turned around and hid in the back, looking in the mirror. I had one lone ponytail sticking up from the top of my head. I quickly took out the band and shook it out.

Face burning, I returned to my spot behind the counter. "What can I get for you?" I mumbled, avoiding eye contact with him.

From behind me, Kyan ran out (I tried my hardest not to trip her) and peeked over the counter to see who it is. When she saw him, she narrowed her eyes.

"The brat's here, too?" Kankuro questioned.

"She's not a brat," I snapped back at him. "She's my sister and its sad that she has more manners than you do."

"I should've figured. You both look exactly alike."

I glanced down at Kyan and she looked up at me. Sure, we both had the same dark eyes and the same mid-back length black hair, but that was the first time anyone has ever said we look exactly alike. We usually got the compliment of: "You're a splitting image of your father. Bless his soul."

"What can I get for you?" I repeated, focusing back on the paper and Kyan retreated to the back to fill a glass of water for him. I hoped she knew to spit in it first.

"Soba noodles with sake."

I lowered the writing tablet to look at his face. "How old are you? Are you even old enough to drink?"

He glared fiercely at me. "Does it really matter? I'm giving you money. That's all you should care about."

"You know, Kankuro, it would look bad on my family's restaurant if we had a drunken kid stumbling around the village. If you're not of the legal drinking age, I'm not serving you sake."

Just then, Kyan ran back out and swerved around the counter, placing the glass of water in front of him. He practically ignored her and kept his focus on me.

"Since we're on a first name basis, I think its only fair if I know your name, too."

"I'm Haketa and she's Kyan. So unless you want something in place of the sake, I guess I'm just getting you some soba noodles."

"I guess you are."

God, he irritated me.

()()()

Kankuro didn't stay for very long. He simply ate, paid, and left. Once he was gone, I hurried out from the back to clean where he had been sitting, only to find that there was no mess to clean up. Instead, there stood the largest tip I'd ever gotten from just taking an order.

Was the guy rich or something?

The building had fallen into silence again, except for Grandfather's random coughs. Kyan and I lounged in the backroom after cleaning the dishes that had just been used.

"Haketa! Delivery!" Mother called from the kitchen. I mentally groaned, wishing I could just relax for the rest of the day, and took the warm box from her. "Ibiki ordered the usual. Take it to room 301 at the academy."

I returned to Kyan to ask if she wanted to come with, but she was already passed out on the front desk, a pool of drool running from her mouth. Looks like I'd be going alone.

As I left the restaurant and headed for the academy, my thoughts drifted to Kankuro. Why did he give me such a large tip? I mean, Mother could pay the rent for half a year with how much he gave me.

Maybe he felt sorry for us? Did he know about Father? No, there was no way he could've known.

I glanced back at the eatery. It wasn't the nicest-looking place in Konohagakure, but it certainly wasn't the worst. Maybe he gave it to me to fix it up?

I stood outside the door to room 301 for only a second before opening the door. My heart jumped as more than a hundred pairs of eyes turned to me.

"Oh, Haketa, I didn't expect you until later," Ibiki told me. He was standing in the front of the room in front of the blackboard. "Just give me one minute."

Nervous butterflies began reproducing in my stomach as I scanned the faces in the room. I saw Naruto and Hinata sitting next to each other, Kiba with Akamaru sitting proudly on his head, and Sakura, who threw me a friendly smile.

"If any individual loses all ten of his or her points, that person's entire team, regardless of how the other two members do, will be disqualified," Ibiki told the horde of people. "You have one hour. Starting now!"

Almost every head shot down to begin reading the pieces of papers on the desk. The only one that stayed up a bit longer than the others was Kankuro. We stared at each other for a moment until my eyes watered up and I had to rub them. A small grain of sand rolled out of my eye and down my hand. By the time I looked up again, Kankuro was already writing.

"I'm sorry I came early," I whispered to Ibiki when he walked toward me, taking the box from my hands. He didn't smile at me, but I knew he wasn't mad. Ibiki wasn't the smiling kind of person.

"Its all right. I told your mother to send you in an hour. She's never been the best listener." He had a hint of joke in his voice. Once he had given me my tip, I turned to head back out the door.

I grabbed the doorknob and froze for a moment, feeling the large amount of money Kankuro had left in my pocket. "Thank you, Kankuro," I whispered very softly.

The proctor sitting closest to me grinned slightly. "Don't mention it," he replied. I stared down at him, realizing he looked a bit different than the others. His pupils were missing and he didn't entirely look human.

Before I left, I glanced back at Kankuro again. He stopped writing and lifted his head slowly to look at me. Then, he gave me the exact same grin the proctor had just given me.

()()()

"How did it go?" Mother asked when I returned two hours later. The day was nearly over, which was perfectly fine with me. I had a nice three hours, walking around and seeing Kankuro at the academy…Wait, what?

"It was fine. I walked in on the Chuunin exams," I told her honestly. I grabbed a damp washcloth from the counter and proceeded to wipe down the tables. After Mother had asked me to close up for the night, she left with my grandfather and sister.

As I swept the floors, I started to think more and more about Kankuro. I wasn't completely sure what his motives were by giving me the money, but then it hit me.

He gave it to me as an apology for the way he acted yesterday. That was the only explanation that would really make sense. Either that or he just enjoyed flaunting his wealth around to people who didn't have as much as he did.

Actually, that made more sense than my other conclusion. Anger boiled in my stomach and I practically threw the broom into the corner of the room, collecting the keys from the countertop. My hands shook as I attempted to lock up the building.

On my way home, I stomped my feet, trying to force out as much resentment as I could before I faced my family. I didn't want to let them know I'd fallen for some stupid mistake like that.

"So, we have three days to get ready, huh?" a familiar female voice sounded. I stopped walking and scurried back behind the wooden fence, slowly peeking over the edge. Gaara, Kankuro, and the blonde girl from yesterday were walking away from me.

"Yeah," Kankuro replied to her. "We don't need it, though."

"Wait," the girl said. They decelerated their walking and she turned to look in my direction. I moved away from the edge, shaking in fear. "I think there's something over there."

"Temari, you're just tired," he hurriedly told her. "I didn't hear anything. Did you, Gaara?"

"Hm."

"See? Gaara didn't either. I think you need sleep, Temari."

"Yeah, probably."

They continued on, but I didn't move. I just stood there, trying my hardest not to breathe. I didn't want her to pick up on that, either.

_Stop helping me, Kankuro._


	3. Walks and Talks

_Note:_ I would just like to thank DreamingBlackFire from Quizilla for being the first to message me about this story and support me. :) It gives me motivation to keep writing it. So, thank you very much! Onto the story!

* * *

><p>The next day, I distracted myself by cleaning pretty much everything twice and serving all the Shinobi that came in. It was a shock, because we'd never gotten so many in one day. From walking past the tables, it was obvious that the teams were having a "victory meal" for passing the first part of the Chuunin exams.<p>

For the most part, it kept me from thinking about Kankuro. Until he walked in.

"This place is packed," Temari commented, gazing around at all the people. She was dressed in something more casual: a pair of black shorts and a black tank top with her hair pulled back into only one ponytail.

Even Kankuro looked different. If it hadn't been for the almost unnoticeable purple paint smudges near his ears, I wouldn't have been able to tell it was him. He had the messiest brown hair I'd ever seen, like he'd just woken up and ran his hands through it a few times. Like Temari, he wore a black tank top, but he didn't quite have the breasts to fill it out, and black pants.

Where was Gaara?

"Their food is awesome, though," Kankuro complimented. I rolled my eyes.

I hurried to them, dodging people on my way. "Welcome! Follow me and I'll get you seated."

As we moved around the customers, I could feel Kankuro's gaze on the back of my head. I found a table and slapped two menus on the table as they sat down.

"Could I get you started with anything to drink?" I asked, pressing the pencil onto the paper.

"Water," Temari answered, looking at me curiously. "Hey, haven't I seen you somewhere before?"

"No, ma'am," I answered quickly, turning to look at Kankuro. "And for you, sir?"

"Sake."

"No," Temari contradicted. "No, you won't. He'll have water, too."

I started to wonder what the two were to each other. It was almost like Temari was his controlling girlfriend. Maybe she was? "Uh, okay," I mumbled. "Two waters. I'll be back in a few minutes to get your order."

"Thank you," Temari said, flashing me a smile, then turning to glare daggers at Kankuro.

I strolled into the back, yelling for my sister to fill two glasses with water, then left again to clean a table and collect my tip. I almost wished there were fifty Kankuros eating here, so I would get larger tips, but then I decided I couldn't handle that many.

The bell at the counter rang and Kyan placed the two glasses on the top. I delivered them to the couple and grabbed my writing tablet. "Anything to ea-"

"Soba noodles," Kankuro automatically said. "Two orders, actually."

I tried my hardest to keep my smile hidden. "All right, then. For you, ma'am?"

"Uh…An order of domburi for me."

"Will that be all?"

Temari handed me her menu and I reached for Kankuro's, but he didn't give it to me quite yet. "I just have a question."

I sighed furtively. "Yes?"

"What time is your shift over?"

"Kankuro," Temari hissed, attempting to kick his leg under the table. She obviously missed, though, when his face didn't change.

"Six," I whispered and yanked the menu from his hand, telling Kyan she could take the order to their table when I passed her. She gave me a confused look, but didn't pry.

()()()

By the time six o'clock came around, I prayed Kankuro forgot or didn't hear me when I told him. He and Temari had left the restaurant hours ago and I considered taking over the rest of Kyan's shift.

"I'm going home!" I called to my family, my sweaty palm resting on the door.

"Be careful!" Mother replied to me. I took a large breath before exiting the shop.

The streetlights were beginning to turn on and younger kids were running home. Konohamaru and his two other friends ran past me, pushing each other immaturely. Sometimes I wished Kyan would make friends her own age.

I bolted to the lamp a few feet away from the building and flipped the small switch inside, watching it flicker to life within seconds. Glancing around nervously, I stalked toward the direction of my house.

This was stupid. Why was I so scared of the guy? Maybe he just wanted his money back? Yeah, that had to be it. The amount he left for a tip had to have been a mistake and he wanted to fix it. Then I wondered how much they gave Kyan for her tip. She _did _seem pretty happy after they left.

"Hey."

I nearly jumped out of my skin when the deep voice addressed me. I turned toward an alley to see a figure immerge from it.

"How did you know I was going to come this way?" I asked, trying to put on a brave face.

Kankuro gave me a look like I was stupid. "This is the way you came yesterday. Remember? I pretty much saved your life by distracting Temari."

"Saved my life?" I repeated, placing my hands on my hips. Hopefully I looked intimidating. "I don't think your girlfriend would have killed me if she saw me."

His mouth fell open and he wore the most horrified expression I think I'd ever seen. "_Girlfriend?_ Temari…my _girlfriend?_" he choked out. Did I say the wrong thing?

"Aren't you two together?" I mumbled, suddenly feeling incredibly dense.

He pushed his body off the fence he'd been leaning on and took a step toward me. I instantly backed away, causing him to stop moving altogether. "Temari is _not_ my girlfriend. She's my older sister. And I wasn't talking about her that would have killed you. Gaara would've snatched you up right there and squeezed you until your body exploded."

Honestly, I didn't know what to say to that. Part of me was embarrassed beyond all reason and the other part was terrified of Gaara. What if he saw Kankuro and me talking like this? Would that be reason enough to kill me?

"I, uh…I have that tip at my house," I informed him, looking down the alley. "If you want, I can go get it and bring it back to you."

"Why would you do that?"

"Isn't that why you wanted to meet me after my shift?"

A grin spread widely on his face. "You know, you're kind of stupid."

"Excuse me?" I yelled, marching over to him until I was only a few inches away. Man, he smelled good. "You listen here, make-up brat." I lifted a finger, which he didn't flinch away from, and ran it down one of the purple smears on his face. "I am not stupid. Just because I assumed the wrong thing doesn't mean I'm stupid. I personally think _you're_ the stupid one, insulting me like that."

"Oh, yeah?" he retorted, mock anger obvious on his face. "What're you going to do about it?"

I opened my mouth to say something, but then I realized I didn't have anything to say. I didn't think this far ahead. "Well…I'll…I'll tell your sister!"

Kankuro stared at me for a moment, trying to force a frightened expression, but eventually failed in a fit of laughter. "Tell Temari?" he mocked between gasping breaths. "Oh no! Not my scary sister! Whatever shall I do?"

I crossed my arms over my chest, my face burning with humiliation and rage. "Why did you want to meet me anyway?" I asked, trying my absolute hardest to ignore his enjoyment at my expense. "If you came for the soba noodle recipe, I don't have it. My mother and grandfather make the food."

After recovering himself, he shook his head at me. "That's not why I came either. Will you please stop assuming things?"

"Only if you answer my question."

"Take a walk with me."

"What?" I asked, suddenly very confused. Kankuro was very scatterbrained.

"Take a walk with me," he repeated, jerking his head toward the alley. He started walking without me, and I had no choice but to rush to his side.

I'm not sure how long we walked in silence, but it started to annoy me. I wished he would say something, _anything._ I didn't care if he insulted me again. At least it would have given us something to talk about. I was just about to ask him about his village when he asked about mine.

"Do you like it here?" he asked softly, as if trying not to wake someone up.

"Yeah," I told him. "I mean, I've never been anywhere else, so I guess I don't know what other places are like. The people here are nice, for the most part, and the weather is usually pleasant. Do you like your village?"

If we hadn't been under a streetlamp, I wouldn't have seen his smirk. "Oh, sure. The constant sandstorms, the mud brick abodes, heat that never seems to go away, even during winter. Its wonderful."

I truthfully couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not. I decided to chance it anyway. "Oh, um…That sounds terrible."

"No, I like it, actually. Don't care much for the Kazekage, though."

"Is he mean?"

We passed a packed pub. Drunken men came stumbling out, holding onto each other for balance and whistling at a group of women who were only lightly drinking. They scoffed and turned their backs to the men, talking amongst themselves.

Kankuro thought about my question for a few moments. "He's just…cruel. He's the kind of man who doesn't care who he has to push down. As long as he gets his way, he's happy."

"What about his family?"

He looked down at me curiously. "What do you mean?"

"Well," I said, clasping my hands behind my back, "does he have a wife? Any kids?"

"He's a widower with three kids."

"That's weird," I told him, receiving an odd look. "I mean, don't you think he should be a nicer person, considering he has children?" I sighed, thinking of my own father. "I bet his kids take after him. Poor things."

Kankuro chuckled bitterly. "You would think, huh?"

We found ourselves at an abandoned park. When Kyan and I were younger, our parents would push us on the swings. I swear I could hear our laughter as Kankuro and I sat on the grass.

I thought it strange how easy it was to talk to Kankuro. He told me about the written part of the Chuunin exams and how nobody knew the answers, except for a select few who weren't even truly taking the test. In return, I told him how I dropped out of the academy.

"Why doesn't your sister talk?" Kankuro finally asked in a very blunt way.

I picked a blade of grass from the ground and began ripping it into pieces. "Shock. She wasn't born that way."

"What happened?"

Pulling myself together to explain it to him was very difficult. I wanted to break down and cry, but I refused to do that. I didn't want to seem weak. It gave a bad impression of the people of Konoha.

"Is it too personal?" Kankuro questioned, trying to look at my face. I intentionally hid behind my hair. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"No, it's okay," I whispered, inhaling deeply. "About two years ago, my father was summoned for a mission. It was just a simple D-ranked mission. He was taking a crate of poisoned kunai knives to a weaponry in your village. They even let him go alone. My sister was getting ready to enroll at the academy, so as practice, my father took her with him."

I leaned back, using my hands to prop up the rest of my body. Their voices of the night before rang through my mind clearly.

"_Kyan, how would you like to go on a mission with me?"_

"_Really? I get to go? Oh, thank you, Father! Thank you so much!"_

"I was already taking classes at the academy, so he didn't offer for me. They left the next day. Kyan was so excited to see Sunagakure."

I stopped talking, failing at holding back my tears. They slid down my cheeks and my chin, falling onto my shirt. I was already in the process of ripping my fourth blade of grass into shreds.

"It wasn't even six hours later that Kyan came back, a bloody mess, without my father. She was shaking so badly that we turned her over to the Medical Shinobi. Mother stayed at the hospital for two days with her while my grandfather tried to find out what happened to my father. I was told to look after the restaurant, so I missed my classes. Without telling me, Mother told the Hokage I'd dropped out to help in my father's place."

"What happened to your Father?"

"They had been attacked on the way. The enemies killed him right in front of Kyan, and then raped her. It took her five months to be able to tell us what happened. Ever since then, she hasn't been able to talk."

"Can she use sign language?"

"No. She can't focus well enough to learn, so she writes everything down."

"_HAKETA!_" Mother's voice echoed throughout the village. I gasped and jumped up, my heartbeat speeding up.

"Oh, crap," I whispered. "I'm in so much trouble!"

Kankuro stood and grinned at me. "How far away is your house?"

"About a mile that way," I told him, pointing east. Without warning, he grabbed me and positioned me bridal-style in his arms.

"Tell me where to go."

His speed was incredible. There was no way in a million years I could have ever moved that fast. Within a minute, we were behind my house. It would have taken me half an hour to get there on my own.

"Thank you," I told him as he placed me on the ground. "Thank you so much."

"Don't mention it."

"HAKETA!"

"Bye, Haketa," he whispered before jumping off as quickly as he came.

I rounded my house to greet Mother at the door. "I'm sorry. I went for a walk and fell asleep at the park."

She sighed in relief, her worried and worn hazel eyes watching me walk into the warm house. "I'm just glad you're safe. Please don't do that again."

"I won't. I'm sorry," I repeated, making my way to my room. I fell back on my bed, rather happy with the way the night went. Maybe I had been wrong about Kankuro? He seemed very nice. He just didn't like younger kids.

Wait. He never told me why he wanted to meet me.


	4. The Truth Comes Out

The world felt strangely enjoyable the next morning. I didn't have much trouble waking up like usual. Seeing as the rest of my family was still asleep, I took the keys and decided to open the restaurant early to clean the kitchen.

On my way, I passed Temari and Gaara. Like yesterday, Temari was dressed casually, but Gaara was dressed in a somewhat armored Shinobi uniform with the gourd still tied to his back. His hair seemed to be damp, possibly from a shower.

"Hey, it's the girl from the restaurant!" Temari called, waving to me. Butterflies of happiness and nervousness fluttered about in my stomach, but they seemed to slaughter each other when Gaara shot me a death glare.

"Hi!" I replied to her, trying to keep my happy guise on. She whispered something to Gaara, who nodded and continued walking, and then moved her way over to me.

"Did Kankuro catch you yesterday?" she questioned as she watched me fumble with the lock on the doors.

After grunting with frustration and almost kicking them open, I smiled and nodded to her, inserting a different key into the hole. The lock clicked and the doors swung open. I sighed and slapped my forehead with my palm.

"Yeah, he did. You can come in. I can't really get you any food right now, since I can't cook," I told her, holding the door open for her as she walked in. She sat at the counter while I grabbed a broom.

"He's still sleeping, which I guess is normal for him, but he came in pretty late last night," she informed me. A sly smirk grew on her face. "Know anything about that, um…Wow, I don't even know your name."

"Its Haketa. And, uh…No, I don't know why he was late." I spied a corner that had been missed the night before and swept the dust away from it. "Why did he want to meet me, though? He never made that clear."

Temari shrugged and began fondling a napkin. "Kankuro's weird. He never really makes his intentions clear. He's a flirt, though, so just be careful. He's a fifteen-year-old guy. You know how they are. He'd say anything to get a girl in bed. Only been successful once, though."

She yelped when the broom smacked against the floor. I stared at it for what felt like hours. Kankuro had made me feel like I could trust him enough to tell him personal things, but all he really wanted to do was have sex with me? How could I have been so stupid?

"Are you okay?" Temari asked, waving her hand in front of my face, bringing me back to reality. I bent down and grabbed the broom, nodding in the process.

"Uh-huh," I reassured her. I turned to meet her and tilted my head back a bit to look at her face. "Temari, you don't know me at all. Why are you concerned with what Kankuro might be trying to do?"

"Well, I don't know, to tell you the truth," she answered, glancing out the window. "I guess its because you're a nice girl with a good head on your shoulders, which is rare from what I've seen of this village-"

"Hey!"

"Sorry. What I'm saying is that you deserve better than what he's trying to do."

I decided to switch to wiping off tables before I completely broke the broom. I didn't want to think about Kankuro anymore. The more I did, the more my stomach twisted painfully. I'm not even sure why it made me so upset. The guy wasn't even a friend to me. Just someone I talked to for a little while, just like I was talking to Temari.

"So, what's up with that Gaara guy?" I asked, intentionally changing the subject. "Does he not like people or something?"

"He's weird, too," Temari replied quickly, like she was hiding something. I didn't want to pry, though. It was her teammate, not mine. I didn't have the right to know about him.

"You know, I've noticed all three of you have the same nose structure," I pointed out a few moments later, hoping for more information. Mentally, I labeled myself as a hypocrite. I didn't care, though. I was curious.

"That's because we're related. Kankuro and Gaara are my younger brothers."

"I'm sorry," I whispered, smiling widely at her. She returned the smile, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, me too."

()()()

Less than an hour later, people filled up the seats. I'd never seen the place so busy two days in a row, but then again, there were a lot more Shinobi roaming around the village, which was good. More people meant more money.

Temari had left long ago, saying she was going to shake Kankuro until he woke up so they could go train. Just the sound of his name put me in a terrible mood, so when the word "delivery" was shouted over all the chatter, I bribed Kyan into running this one herself.

"Please, Kyan? I don't feel like it today."

"_No._"

"_Please_? I'll even pay you!"

"_No!"_

"I'll take over your shift for the rest of the month!"

"_NO!"_

I grabbed the paper and crumbled it up, throwing it at her head. "Fine! But don't ask for anything from me, you got that?" I screamed, yanking the bag carrying the box of soba noodles up and stomping out of the building.

The address written down on the attached piece of paper led me to a third floor room of a hotel. Foreign Shinobi, no doubt. I knocked loudly, bouncing my left leg up and down out of habit.

"GET THE DOOR!" a familiar voice screeched.

"Temari…?"

The door opened slowly and I came face-to-face with Kankuro's chest. My palms instantly started to sweat and I refused to look him in the eye.

"Here's your food," I mumbled, holding the bag out to him with one hand and holding my other hand out for payment.

"Hey," he said, as if he didn't hear me. Moving to the side, he motioned for me to come in. "Come in. Gaara isn't going to be back for a while, so its okay."

"No, I-"

"Is that Haketa?" Temari yelled. "Kankuro, _move!_ Hi, Haketa! Come on in!"

A wobbling smile formed on my face as I made my way in. I couldn't say no to her for some reason. She was just too nice to me.

Their hotel room was decent-sized with two beds, a sliding door that led to the balcony, a table with two chairs near that door, a dresser holding a TV, and a wooden door leading to the bathroom. It was easy to tell which bed was Temari's: the clean one with the pillows fluffed nicely and the clothes folded at the foot of it. It was much different than Kankuro's: the bed that wasn't made and was surrounded in wrinkled clothes, leaving him just enough space to lie down.

Temari was sitting cross-legged on her bed, the remote in her right hand. The channels on the TV changed every second and I waited for her to complain about there being nothing to watch in Konoha.

"Kankuro, pay her," she ordered in a harsh tone. It was odd because I'd only heard her talk like that once before, and that was when I first encountered them with Naruto, Sakura, and Konohamaru.

She patted a spot next to her for me, and I sat there with my legs dangling off the side of her bed after placing the food on the table. "I thought you guys were going to train."

"We were going to, but _somebody_ wouldn't wake the hell up," she mumbled, glaring at her brother. I felt as if I wasn't supposed to be there. There was too much tension in the room.

"I am _so_ sorry that I need sleep, banshee," Kankuro growled, placing my payment next to the food. "My beauty sleep is obviously working more than yours is, so I think mine is a little more important."

Temari scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Beauty sleep, my ass. Maybe if you didn't come back at ungodly hours of the night, you might actually get a full night's sleep."

While they bickered with each other, I began to wish I was a small bug. Small bugs never felt awkward in situations like this. They just hang out and mind their own business, doing small bug things. They can't eavesdrop because they probably can't understand humans. Man, I wished I was a small bug.

"Haketa?"

"Huh?" I muttered, being pulled from my small bug thoughts. Both of them were watching me intently. It seemed as if Temari was trying to tell me something without making it obvious.

"Did you hear what I said?" Kankuro asked me, lounging back on his bed.

"Uh, no. Sorry."

"What are you doing after work today?"

"_He'd say anything to get a girl in bed. Only been successful once, though." _Well, I sure as heck wasn't going to be the second.

"I'm going to ask my mom if Temari and stay for the night at my house," I answered, acknowledging the nudging that Temari was doing on my leg with her big toe. "I've never had anyone sleep over before."

"That's right," Temari confirmed, looking shockingly excited.

"Oh, all right, then." The disappointed look on his face almost made me grin.

()()()

"This is my room," I told her, opening my door and revealing my cave. Kyan followed her in, taking a spot on my bed. Temari glanced around, looking uninterested.

"Well, its very…quaint," she mumbled. She turned to give me a concerned look. "A little small, though, don't you think?"

I shook my head, sitting next to my sister. "This is actually big, compared to the other houses in Konoha."

I think I heard her whisper, "Yeesh…"

She placed her bag onto my floor and joined us on the bed, throwing my sister a small smile. Kyan just stared blankly at her, though. She didn't care much for her or her brothers.

Temari's eyes settled on a picture on the nightstand next to my bed. "Who is this?" she asked, holding it closer to her face.

"My father," I told her, watching Kyan practically run out of the room. She hated when people spoke about him. "He passed away not long ago."

"Oh, I'm so sorry." She placed the picture back down gently. "You look a lot like him."

"Thank you."

From downstairs, I heard Mother and Grandfather argue about Temari being in the house. Mother hated the idea, because she from Sunagakure. She wanted nothing to do with that village, but Grandfather found nothing wrong with it. He told her it wasn't Temari's fault that Father had been murdered, or even Suna's fault. It just made my mother uncomfortable.

"My mother passed away, too," Temari informed me, pulling me away from the other conversation.

"How?"

"Birthing Gaara."

Was he just a natural born killer? "What happened? Was he too big, or…?"

"No," she replied, lying back on my bed. "Actually, Gaara was pretty small compared to Kankuro and me. She didn't struggle much, but I mean, after Kankuro's fat ass, I'm sure Gaara just slipped right out."

"Then how did she die?"

Temari shrugged. "I guess just pregnancy problems," she said, her voice cracking a bit. "I was only five when it happened, so I didn't understand." There was something off about how she was saying it.

"How sad," I mumbled, feeling terrible for her. When I was five, Mother was like God to me. I couldn't imagine losing her at that age. "So, um, sorry for bringing it up again, but when you said Kankuro would tell girls anything to sleep with them, you said he was only successful once. What happened with that?"

I don't know why I was asking her about it. I knew it would only make me upset and make me feel even more like I was being used.

"It was with this girl about a year younger than him back in our village. Her name is Serisu or something like that. They met each other at the academy and Kankuro always wanted to hang out with her. I don't know where he learned to do it, but he would always tell her these stupidly cute things to make her all…you know how girls get. He made her think she needed him and she was so in love with him. One day, they got into a fight and she was screaming at him right in the middle of the village. I guess he told her he lost interest in her, but she was crying and saying how she loved him so much, that she didn't regret giving him her virginity."

My mouth fell open. "That's…that's…" I couldn't even find the right words for what that was. "That's horrible! How could he do that to someone?"

"Kankuro can be cruel sometimes. He takes after our father in that aspect."

Temari fell asleep soon after that, but I stayed wide awake for hours, listening to her mumble in her sleep. She kept repeating, "Forest of Death" and, "Gaara, please calm down. Keep control."

Kankuro filled my thoughts and I couldn't push him out. I was just so infuriated and hurt. I felt sorry for Serisu, but I had learned from her mistake. I would not let him do the same to me, no matter what. I wasn't as stupid as he thought.

"You can pick up your own mess, you slob," Temari muttered, rolling over. Her arm swung over her body and landed right on my left breast.

I inhaled and shut my eyes tightly, biting down on my lower lip. "Ow…"


	5. Don't Get Involved

"How was the girly sleepover?" Kankuro questioned when we returned to the hotel the next day. Gaara was still nowhere to be seen and I was okay with that. I didn't want to spend my day off hiding in fear of him.

"Fine," Temari and I answered simultaneously, walking past him. He let go of the door and allowed it to shut by itself. Well, more along the lines of slamming by itself.

The tension seemed to linger from the day before. Temari and Kankuro ignored each other, both trying to get my attention. However, I turned my back to him. Maybe he would get the point then.

"So the second part of the exams is tomorrow?" I asked as I watched Temari toss her dirty clothes into a pile in the corner of the room.

"Yeah. We're supposed to meet at training ground #44 at noon."

I had no idea what that place was or even that it existed in Konoha. I only shrugged and glanced at her brother, who was exiting the bathroom, dressed in the black suit and his face designed in the kabuki paint.

"Where are you going?" Temari inquired.

"Out," he snapped without looking at her.

"Out where?"

"Don't worry about it."

I rolled my eyes. "Don't get anyone pregnant, Kankuro."

There was a long silence after that. I know I should have felt bad about saying that, but I didn't. I was still upset with that Temari told me about him.

"What did you say?" Kankuro growled.

I looked at his face, trying to seem as angry as possible. "Most Konohagakure girls won't give it up easily, so you might have to work a bit for it," I hissed. "I'm sure you could find _someone _like Serisu."

His eyes flashed to Temari. "What did you tell her, Temari?" he shouted.

"Exactly what happened," she replied casually, smiling innocently at him. "How you suddenly stopped having feelings for her right after you two had sex."

Under the purple paint, his face turned crimson. "That's _not_ what happened and you know it!" He took a step toward her, but stopped suddenly. His ankles were being held down by sand.

"Kankuro," a deep voice from behind said. Gaara was standing in the doorway, glaring at his brother. "Leave."

"But Gaara, Temari told-"

"Does it really matter? If you kill her, we have no chance of passing these exams. Leave and calm down."

Kankuro seemed to give up then. He shot Temari and me one last defiant stare before turning and walking past Gaara, grabbing the mummy-looking object that had been propped up in the corner.

"Who are you?"

It took me a few seconds to realize Gaara was talking to me. I gulped and bowed slightly to him. "I-I'm Chikaku Haketa."

"Leave," he ordered, his expression remaining the same, "before I kill you."

"Yes, sir!" I shouted, running around him. As I passed him, I noticed the metallic scent about him. The last time I smelled something like that, Kyan had been covered in blood.

It was blood. He smelled like blood.

After much struggle, I was finally able to push Gaara out of my head when I realized I was on the same path that Kankuro and I had walked on together two days before. My head throbbed in pain. That's all Kankuro was: just one big headache.

"_Kankuro can be cruel sometimes. He takes after our father in that aspect." _I didn't know how Temari dealt with living with him.

"_He's just…cruel. He's the kind of man who doesn't care who he has to push down. As long as he gets his way, he's happy."_

Wait. Kankuro had mentioned the Kazekage being cruel, just as Temari mentioned her brother to be. Kankuro took after their father.

"_He's a widower with three kids."_

"_Kankuro and Gaara are my younger brothers." "My mother passed away, too." _

When I stopped walking, my legs felt shaky. Kankuro was the Kazekage's son and he didn't tell me, even when we were talking about his family.

"Kuso," a voice hissed from not far away. I hadn't even recognized I was in the park.

I turned to face a shady tree. The white wrap that covered whatever Kankuro carried on his back was strewn out on the grass and he was leaned against the trunk, a gigantic wooden puppet sitting between his legs. He was bent over it with some sort of tool in his hand.

The bitter feeling of resentment boiled in my gut. Hundreds of angry speeches filled my head, but once Kankuro looked over at me, they disappeared. His eyes narrowed before he returned to his work.

"Go away," he ordered me.

"Why?" I asked, moving closer until I was right next to him. I sat down, looking at the puppet. "What did I do to you?"

"I just don't want to see you right now." He gasped when a piece of metal inside the instrument grazed his finger. A small line of blood quickly replaced the cut.

He lifted his finger to put it in his mouth, but I grabbed his wrist. "Don't do that," I told him, bringing his hand down to the bottom of my shirt. I pressed his cut against the fabric. "You could get sick."

"I never get sick," he snapped, yanking his hand away from me. "Go away."

"Not until you tell me what I did wrong. Was it because I brought up Seri-"

"You don't know anything about that," he growled, lifting his face to meet mine. "Whatever Temari told you wasn't how it happened. She's just mad at me for yesterday. She carries grudges forever."

I picked a blade of grass from the ground and set it on my leg, cutting through it with my fingernail. "Well, what she told me sounded like something a guy your age would do."

"You obviously don't know me then."

We fell into an awkward silence for a while. Kankuro ignored me and worked on his puppet, avoiding the stray piece of metal. I continued to mutilate grass blades.

"What did she tell you anyway?" he finally asked.

"That you broke up with the girl right after you took her virginity."

He shook his head. "No, that's not what happened. Well, it is, but she didn't tell you why I did it."

Part of me wanted to know why, but the other part didn't. I was scared it would be a reason that would make me hate Kankuro completely. Unfortunately, he told me anyway.

"It wasn't _right _after we did things," he mumbled without looking at me. "We were each other's firsts, but it was just more of getting wrapped up in the moment instead of actually having real feelings for each other. About a month after it, we got into an argument and she told me she only stayed with me for…well, certain reasons, and then she cheated on me."

"Certain reasons?"

"Because…because the Kazekage…"

"…is your father."

He didn't say anything after that, but I began to feel ridiculously guilty. I shouldn't have been angry with him without knowing his side of the story.

"Why didn't you tell me you're the Kazekage's son?" I whispered, trying to blink my eyes dry.

"I thought if you knew, you'd treat me differently. The three of us usually get special treatment back in Sunagaku- Why are you crying?"

I wiped my eyes with the backs of my hands furiously, feeling stupid for not being able to hold back my tears. I'd never cried in front of anyone except Kyan and my mother.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, "for what I said earlier. I didn't know."

Kankuro stared at me strangely, as if he wasn't used to people crying. "Um, it's okay," he told me. "I'm not mad at you. Just at Temari."

I didn't look at him. "What happened?" I asked, pointing to the puppet. I didn't want to talk about what Temari said anymore.

"I was training and found a spot I needed to fix. Turns out, I just made it worse," he replied with a small smile. "It happens."

"How do you fight with puppets?"

He stood up, leaving the device on the ground. "Its not completely fixed yet, but…" He held out his hand and light blue strings formed from his fingertips to the puppet. From watching my friends and Kyan train, I knew they were Chakra strings.

The puppet lifted from the ground and swayed in front of me. Its jaw hung open slightly, which must have been the part Kankuro was trying to fix. Its three wooden eyed stayed on me and I noticed that when I moved to the side, they followed. Popping up from the slashed black cloak it wore was a mess of hair, almost matching the color of its master's. Under the cloak, six legs hung down.

"Its kind of cute," I commented, standing up and touching its face with my hand. Kankuro moved his fingers, making the puppet nuzzle my palm. I smiled at him. "Does it have a name?"

"Crow. I used him in the exam to get the answers."

"Smart thinking," I complimented, feeling the hair. It felt real.

"Yeah. I'm a genius," he joked.

With another finger movement, kunai sprouted from the wrists. I watched them, then went to touch them, but Kankuro moved so fast, I couldn't react. He moved his own body around the puppet's, grabbing my hand.

"Don't touch. They're poisoned," he warned.

"Oh," I muttered, feeling stupid. "Thanks."

"You owe me, you know." Kankuro backed away, placing his weapon back around the wrappings, securing it back up.

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah. I've done so much for you in the past couple days." He stood, slipping the puppet on his back, and faced me.

I placed my hands on my hips and tilted my head back to look at his face. I didn't like it much when I was shorter than people, but with Kankuro, I didn't mind. "Like what?"

He counted on his fingers. "Well, I saved you from Gaara, I left you that tip, I brought Temari into the restaurant, I took you home, and I think I've forgiven you for earlier." A smirk grew on his face.

"You think?" I repeated.

Kankuro gazed away, as if I wasn't standing directly in front of him. "Yeah. I'm not completely sure if I should forgive you. I might need some convincing."

"How?"

He looked up toward the sun and I stopped breathing for a moment. The way the sunlight hit his face was amazing, to say the least. It brought out his features from under the kabuki paint and I decided he looked a lot better without it on.

"Did you hear me?" his voice asked, bringing me out of my thoughts.

"Huh?"

"There's still a few hours until you have to be back home, so you should show me around the village. Maybe then I'll forgive you."

It sounded simple enough. Besides, the next part of the exams started the next day and if it included fighting, I wasn't sure if I'd ever see him again. That thought brought my mood down a great deal.

"Um, sure," I whispered, walking from him. "Come, come, little boy."

"Little?"

()()()

"I'm not sure what else to show you," I told him honestly about two hours later. We stopped at the front of my house.

It was getting dark and the restaurant would be closing soon. Dissatisfaction hit me hard. I didn't want to say goodbye to Kankuro, but eventually I had to. I enjoyed being around him. I didn't think about the things I usually did, the things that constantly made me upset. I didn't think about how poor we were, or how my father was dead and my sister was mute. I only thought about Kankuro.

"Good luck tomorrow," I told him, forcing a smile on my face.

"Thanks. I guess I'll see you in five days?"

"Five?" I repeated, the smile dropping.

"The next part lasts for five days."

"Oh…well…Um, still, good luc-"

Kankuro cut me off by pulling me into a hug. For a second, I just stood there, shocked, until he whispered, "You know, a hug is usually a two-person job." I backed away from him and sighed.

"Please just be careful," I requested, standing on my tippy-toes to wrap my arms around his neck. "Come back without serious injuries and I'll serve you all the soba noodles you want, free of charge."

He squeezed me a bit tighter before letting me go. "Thank you, Haketa."

()()()

"TEMARI!" Kankuro yelled, kicking the hotel door open. The blonde girl was already wrapped up in blankets, sleeping soundly. He grabbed the covering and yanked them off. "WAKE UP!"

"What?" she mumbled, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. "Why are you yelling?"

He stood at the foot of the bed, glaring at her. "Why didn't you tell Haketa that Serisu cheated on me?"

Temari sighed. "I can't let you get attached to her. It'll ruin the entire plan, Kankuro."

"What are you talking about?"

"I know what's going on. I'm not stupid. What are you going to do when the attack starts and she gets killed?"

Kankuro remained quiet until Temari took the blankets back. "What if I warn her the day before it happens?"

"You know what she'll do. She'll tell the Hokage. Just stay away from her, Kankuro. Its not good to get involved with someone here."


	6. Like Mother Like Daughter

For five days, I paced around my house and the restaurant, almost unable to work. Whenever I cleaned the tables after people left, I would accidentally break dishes. I took orders wrong. I even got lost on deliveries.

I wasn't intentionally acting that way. I blamed it on Kankuro. I was so worried about him that I couldn't focus on anything I was doing. I couldn't even sleep very well. Why did it affect me so badly?

Kankuro was a friend. A very good friend. That was it, much to my disappointment. Even if we did have feelings for each other, it wouldn't have worked out. Living in two different villages would've been hard on us.

On the morning of the last day, I hopped out of bed and threw clothes on, not even caring if I looked okay or not. My family had already gone but I didn't waste time around the house.

On my way to the restaurant, I passed posters that advertised the last part of the Chuunin exams. Apparently, the entire village was invited to watch. I frowned at the date, however. A month from today. I would be working.

"I'm here!" I called, opening the front doors. From behind the counter, Kyan waved to me. I grinned widely at her. "Any customers yet?"

She shook her head and grabbed for her notepad and pencil. _"Not yet. The third part of the Chuunin exams is supposed to be over today, so we'll probably get a large crowd later on."_

"Third?" I repeated, lowering the notepad to look at her. "I thought it was only the second."

"_No. Grandfather told me the third is right after the second. He also said there are going to be a lot of dead bodies in the Forest of Death."_

I stared at her for what seemed like forever. So, that's what Temari was muttering about in her sleep. After a few moments of silence, Kyan took the notepad from me and wrote again.

"_What's wrong?"_

"I'm worried about Kankuro."

"_Why? He's a jerk."_

I smiled and walked past her, ruffling her hair on my way. Unexpectedly, she followed me, giving me a sharp glare when I sat down. I looked at her and shrugged.

"What?" I mumbled. "He's actually a nice guy even though he doesn't look like it."

She just rolled her eyes and shook her head.

()()()

By the time my shift was over, I felt sick to my stomach with worry. Kankuro hadn't dropped by and it was getting dark. Had he gotten hurt? Was he still alive?

"Haketa, what's wrong?" Mother asked on our way back home. I watched Kiba and Akamaru run past. At least they made it out okay.

"I'm just worried about a friend."

"Who?"

"You don't know him. He's from a different village."

The house was dark and uninviting when we entered. I hurried to my room and pushed the window open, watching for any sign of the Suna trio. After an hour, I finally decided to give up.

My bed was cold and it felt as if I had been lying there for hours when it had only been half an hour. A pounding noise from downstairs made my body jolt with shock.

"Haketa! You have a visitor!"

I jumped out of bed and examined myself in my mirror. I wasn't particularly dressed for anyone to see me. I was wearing shorts, an oversized shirt, and my hair was a little messy, so I grabbed two rubber bands from my desk. One secured my hair and the other was wrapped around the back of my shirt so it didn't look as big on me.

"Coming!" I called.

My heart dropped into my stomach when I strolled into the living room. Kankuro stood there without the kabuki paint and the black suit. He didn't even have his puppet on his back. He looked as casual as it could get.

"Kankuro!" I yelled, butterflies mating in my stomach. Without thinking first, I ran and jumped at him, wrapping my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist. "You're alive!" His untidy hair tickled my cheek and I noticed it smelled of shampoo, like he'd showered before coming over. I could feel his rapid heartbeat against my body.

"Who is this?" Grandfather asked, hobbling into the room. I slowly slid off the boy and turned to my mother and grandfather, who were both watching us intently.

"This is Kankuro, my friend from Sunagakure. He's here for the Chuunin exams," I introduced. "Kankuro, this is my mother and grandfather."

"Its nice to meet you both," Kankuro said, bowing slightly to my grandfather.

Grandfather gave him an odd look and shook his head. "You're very formal. I don't like it," he said honestly and held out his hand. "Now shake my hand like a man." Yes, my grandfather was very weird.

When Kankuro turned to my mother, she hugged him tightly. "I'm a hugger," she informed him. "Its nice to meet you."

"You too, ma'am."

Kyan walked in then. I had obviously woken her up, but I didn't care. I'd apologize later.

She and Kankuro locked gazes. "Hi, Kyan," Kankuro greeted, trying to sound as nice as possible. Kyan glanced at me, then nodded to Kankuro before returning to her room.

Well, it was a start.

()()()

"How was it?" I asked as soon as we got to my room. Mother had allowed him to stay for a few hours. The only condition was my bedroom door had to stay open the whole time.

Kankuro stretched out on my bed and grinned widely at me. "Well, I didn't get hurt," he said proudly. "It was terrible, actually. I found out that sleeping on the ground is very comfortable. I like your bed better."

"Did you advance to the finals?" I sat cross-legged next to him, looking down at his face. Because I had taken my hair out of the ponytail, he batted my hair gently with his pointer finger.

"Yeah. They're in a month."

"I think I'm going to ask for that day off to go watch."

"No!" he snapped, sitting up straight. When he saw my confused expression, he shoved a weak smile onto his face. "I uh…I don't want you to see me fight."

I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him. "Why not?"

"I get scary when I fight," he said. "I just go into beast mode."

"Beast mode?"

"Yeah."

I could tell he was trying to cover something up, but I didn't want to push it. Not tonight. I was just happy to have him here and alive. However, I _was _going to watch him in the finals even if he begged me not to.

We spent the next few hours talking about anything and everything: who Gaara fought, who Kankuro fought, how people thought his enemy had broken his neck, how Sasuke had to be taken to the hospital, and how Gaara had almost killed Lee.

During the time that we talked, we changed sitting positions continuously until we found one we both liked. Kankuro lay on his back with his head on my pillow, his right arm in a semi-circle shape. I nestled myself into that semi-circle, lying on my stomach with my chin propped up with my palms. My legs were bent upward so my ankles could cross each other.

I couldn't keep it from myself any longer. I was beginning to have feelings for the guy. Every time he smiled, I smiled. His laughter made my stomach flutter. Whenever he wrapped my hair around his fingers, I couldn't help but blush.

I was glad I met him.

()()()

For some unknown reason, I'd woken up before the sun had the chance to sneak its way into my window. Readjusting myself, I noticed my pillow was firmer than usual.

I had to force my urge to scream to go away when I realized it was a body. I'd forgotten Kankuro was still here. I didn't recognize that we'd fallen asleep. I swear I had only closed my eyes for a second.

I sat up slightly and watched him sleep, as creepy as that may sound. He almost looked like a little boy in his sleep, like he'd never killed a person. His head was tilted to the side, facing me, and I watched his eyelids flutter. He was probably dreaming.

Part of me wanted to curl up against him and place my head back on his chest, but I knew I couldn't. I had to set an example for Kyan.

I glanced down at Kankuro's hand, which was loosely placed over my shirt on my lower back. He stirred in his sleep and gripped at the blanket with his other hand, breathing heavily. He mumbled something incoherently, but I swear I heard the word "war."

I shivered when the hand he was touching me with slid under my shirt and rested on my skin. He seemed to calm down, then, and fall back into a dreamless sleep.

Slowly and very carefully, I grabbed his wrist and placed his arm on the bed, covering it with my blanket, before slipping out of the room and closing the door behind me. Someone must have closed it while we were asleep.

Mother was already awake and counting the money made from the day before at the kitchen table. "Hey, there," she greeted me, pushing out a chair for me to sit in. "I see Kankuro is still here."

"I'm sorry," I mumbled. "I didn't mean for us to fall asleep."

"Don't worry about it." She grinned widely at me. "You know, Haketa, you have a way with making friends with Suna Shinobi. You get that from me."

"What do you mean, Mother?"

"Your father was a Shinobi from Sunagakure when I met him. He was on a D-ranked mission to come to Konoha for some business matter. It allowed him to stay for a few months. We met and within a year, we were married."

Married? I hope she wasn't hinting that toward Kankuro and me. Marriage between us hadn't even crossed my mind. I was only fourteen. I didn't even have the body to fill out a wedding dress yet.

"Kankuro is a nice boy," Mother complimented. "He's welcome to stay anytime."

"Thank you. I'm going to go see if he's awake."

I stood from the table and made my way back up to my room. Kankuro was still asleep, wrapped up in my blankets. His left foot stuck out from under the covers. I didn't want to wake him, but it was just too tempting.

Once I stood close enough, I gently touched each of his toes with my pointer finger. He didn't respond in any way, so I ran my finger down the middle of his foot. It twitched rapidly and his foot shot back under the blanket. A moaning noise came from the head of the bed. I looked at his face to see him glaring at me. The only thing I could see was his eyes and his mass of brown hair.

"I didn't know you were ticklish," I said innocently, crawling onto the bed.

"I'm not," he lied in a childish way. He closed his eyes and stretched, groaning again. "What time is it?"

"I don't know. Probably around four in the morning."

His body shot off my bed and he suddenly looked panicked. "Four? Are you serious?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I have to go, Haketa. I'm sorry."

I stood up again, knowing I looked immensely disappointed. "Why? My mother said you could stay anytime. She likes you."

A hint of happiness glistened in his eyes before he glanced around for his shoes. "Temari is going to be _so _pissed at me." He walked two steps toward me and pulled me into a hug. "I'll stop by the restaurant later, I promise. You owe me free soba noodles anyway."

Once he was gone, I curled up on my bed, inhaling the scent he left behind. I was surprised at how well I slept with him in bed with me. I actually loved it.

"_We met and within a year, we were married."_


	7. Teach Me

"Hello, sir. May I seat you?"

"Why, yes. That would be great."

"Follow me." I giggled softly and led Kankuro to the counter, placing the menu on the surface. "Oh, wait. I think I know what you want. You saw the imaginary sign for endless soba noodles for guys with brown hair and dark eyes, didn't you?"

He smiled at me. "You must be a mind reader. That's amazing."

"I know. I think I'm pretty awesome sometimes," I jokingly boasted, moving to the back. "Three orders of soba noodles for Kankuro!"

"Kankuro's here?" Mother screeched, popping her head out from the kitchen. "I want to say hi."

She caught him in a tight hug and began a conversation, ignoring the other customers who were beginning to crowd in. With a warm feeling of contentment in my stomach, I greeted them and found them seats while Grandfather slipped the three bowls of noodles in front of Kankuro.

I hardly had any time to talk to him. As one person left, two more people would take their place. I found myself running back and forth between seating people, taking their orders, and running those orders back to my family. Kyan was just as busy as I was, cleaning the tables after people left.

"Need help?" Kankuro asked, watching me.

I gave him a look of relief, but shook my head. "No, its okay. You just sit there and keep eating. You don't even have to stay here. You can go train or something."

He stood up from the stool and reached for a pencil and a notepad at the end of the counter. "One; I'm full. Two; I trained with Temari at four this morning," he said in a cocky way. I lifted my eyebrows at him, only to have him laugh in response. "Am I not good enough to take orders, Haketa? I know you have to have some serious skill, but I think I'll do decently."

"Kankuro, really, you don't have t-"

He ran his pointer finger under my chin, making a "shhh" noise before sticking his tongue out at me and hurrying to a table I hadn't yet tended to. I didn't quite have time to pout about it, so I continued with my job, making faces at him whenever we passed each other.

"Oh, really?" he would say. "Is that how you really feel, Haketa?"

"Yeah, Kankuro," I would reply. "That's exactly how I feel."

Then he would smile and make my job so much better.

()()()

Within three hours, the rush died down. Hardly anyone came in and Mother offered for Kyan and me to take the rest of the day off, which we instantly took.

"That was so exhausting," Kankuro said sarcastically as we left, Kyan walking behind us. We both glared at him.

"Try doing it almost every day," I told him. My sister nodded in agreement. Before it could turn into an argument, I changed the subject. "Now what are we going to do?"

Kyan motioned for us to follow her, and then took off running toward the forest that surrounded the village. I sighed, running after her, but because she learned how to control her Chakra under Father's watch, she was gone within seconds. I never got that far in the academy.

Kankuro jogged next to me, watching me curiously. "You don't know how to focus your Chakra?" he asked. I shook my head in an embarrassed way and he lifted me off the ground easily, sprinting after my sister.

She led us to the river Grandfather always took us to when we were younger. "I bet you don't have this in Suna," I whispered to Kankuro.

"Want me to throw you in the water?"

"No!"

"So, yes?"

I began to flail around as he moved closer to the water. Kyan silently laughed as she watched me bury my face into Kankuro's shirt, screaming loudly.

"Oh no!" Kankuro said dramatically. I could feel him lowering me down. "Haketa's going to get wet!"

I stopped screaming when my butt touched solid, dry ground. I released his shirt and opened my eyes, realizing I was nowhere near the water. Kyan, taking off her zori, was still laughing at me.

"You're mean," I growled at Kankuro, standing up and walking away from him.

"Are you really mad at me?" he asked, following close behind me. I stood at the water's edge, glaring into it.

"Yes."

"Why? I didn't throw you in-"

I turned and wrapped my arms around his body, throwing myself back into the water and taking him with me. The water rushed over us as I opened my eyes. Kankuro glowered at me before going up for air.

"You fell into that trap!" I told him after taking a substantial breath. With his hair wet, it nearly covered his eyes, so he flicked it to the side.

"Oh, did I?" he questioned, anger obvious on his face. He stood up and made his way to the edge of the water, lifting himself out. "I'm going back to the hotel."

My mouth fell open. "Kankuro, I'm sorry! I thought we were just playing around!" As he walked away, I hurried to get out of the river. Kyan watched us closely. "I'm sorry!"

I gazed at him until he was no longer in sight, then stood next to Kyan. I honestly felt like crying, but I didn't want to in front of her. Especially not over a boy. She patted my leg gently and smiled weakly, mentally telling me that it would be okay.

"And Kankuro comes in for the kill!"

"Wha-"

I was suddenly bear hugged from behind and tackled back into the water. From under, Kankuro grinned innocently at me and I punched his chest, which of course didn't hurt him at all. Stupid water resistance.

"Now my clothes are wet!" I complained once we came back up.

"That's your fault!" He helped me out from the water and tried to ignore the upset face I wore. "Look, I'll make it up to you."

"How?"

"I'll…teach you how to focus Chakra into your feet, so you can keep up with Kyan and me," he offered as he slipped his zori and wet shirt off. I tried my hardest to keep my eyes on his face.

"Will you really?"

"If you want, but not right now." He sat on the grass and sprawled his limbs out, closing his eyes. "I never get to relax like this. There's always something that has to be done and when I can't push it off onto Temari, I actually have to do things. I hate doing things."

()()()

"That's a duck."

"How is that a duck?"

"See the head and the feet? Its obviously a duck."

"I'm not seeing it."

We focused on the next cloud that came floating by. On the other side of Kankuro, Kyan twitched in her sleep and rolled over, curling back into her ball. I readjusted my arms behind my head.

"That one looks like a…" I stared at it, wondering what it could be. "…a dolphin."

"Not even," Kankuro retorted. "It looks more like a penis than a dolphin."

"Are you crazy? That is a dolphin. End of conversation." I rolled onto my stomach and stared at his face. "Will you teach me now?"

He gave me an odd look, batting at my hair. "Teach you what?"

"You've already forgotten?" I whined, moving away from him. "You said you'd teach me to focus my Chakra!"

"All right. Fine. We'll use that tree."

"How?"

"You'll see." Kankuro stood up and wrapped his fingers around my wrist, leading me to a thick tree. "You're going to climb this without using your hands."

"And how exactly am I going to do that?" I asked, not believing it was possible. His eyes strayed from my face for a moment before he grinned.

"Kyan will show you."

I turned to see my sleepy sister make her way over to us. She nodded to Kankuro and made a simple hand sign. The short grass around her feet swayed as if a strong wind had blew past us, and she placed her left foot on the trunk. My eyes widened as she began walking up vertically like it was solid ground, until she reached a branch. She wrapped her arms around her shirt to keep it from falling up as she hung upside down from it.

"Its as simple as that," Kankuro said, looking up at Kyan. "But there's more to it. When I first learned this, my sensei explained how it also helps maintain your stamina. Hanging upside down like that, Kyan will eventually get tired as her Chakra slowly depletes. The more you practice it, the longer you'll be able to hold the Jutsus you use."

Kyan moved back to the truck and slid down, doing a messy somersault at the bottom. She gave me the thumbs-up signal and I sighed.

"Okay, teach me."

"There's a certain hand sign that greatly helps with focusing, which you'll need to do for this," Kankuro explained, forming his hands in the same position Kyan did.

"Like this?" I mumbled, trying to mimic him.

"Not really. Here." He pressed his palms to the backs of my hands and intertwined our fingers as he stood directly behind me. His bare chest was warm on my back. "Its kind of like…your left hand is hugging your two fingers on your right."

"O-Oh, I see now."

He moved away, leaving me very disappointed. "Now close your eyes. When you focus your Chakra to the bottom of your feet, they'll start to get this weird tingling feeling."

I exhaled slowly and did as he told me, mentally picturing my energy moving down to the soles of my feet. They began to feel warm, then I felt that tingling feeling he mentioned. I heard Kyan clap for me.

"Good. Now open your eyes and walk up the tree."

The world around me looked different for some reason. Everything was much more vivid than before. Was it because of the Chakra?

I placed my right foot on the wood, slowly making my way up while I pretended it was just normal ground. Once I passed the middle, I made the mistake of turning my head to glance down. The tingling disappeared and my feet slipped from the tree. I screamed as I fell through the air.

"I got you!" Kankuro called, catching me gently in his arms. I didn't realize how much I was shaking until he placed me back on the ground.

"That was terrifying," I mumbled, backing away from the stupid tree. "I never want to do that again."

Kyan shook her head at me and I knew what she was thinking. I needed to learn how to do this. Focusing Chakra was a basic part of life.

Kankuro suddenly appeared behind me. I didn't even have time to ask how he could move that fast before he was pushing me back to the tree. "I'll stay right behind you this time, so if you fall, you won't go far. Try it again."

I made the hand sign and closed my eyes, but I didn't feel the sensation I was starting to love.

"You're focusing too much on being scared. I'm right behind you, Haketa."

I opened my eyes and turned around to look at him. He wasn't lying. If I leaned back even an inch, I'd be falling into him.

"Okay," I whispered, turning back to the tree. As soon as my eyes closed, I felt the phenomenon and began walking.

The entire way up the tree, Kankuro whispered encouraging things to me. "You're doing great," or "Keep going. See the branch? You're almost there." Fortunately, I wasn't scared anymore.

I rounded to the branch, holding my shirt in place with my hands. From the ground, Kyan smiled and clapped her hands for me. I had done it.

"Good job," Kankuro said, standing beside me. I grinned at the sight of his hair sticking up. I'm sure I looked just as ridiculous. "Now, getting down. Hold my hand." Without hesitation, I grabbed his left hand with my right. Our fingers automatically entwined. "We're both going to use our Chakra to push ourselves off in a front flip, got it?"

"Got it."

"One, two, three!"

I took a big breath and bent my knees slightly, pushing off the branch. I couldn't help but laugh as the air flew through my hair and we landed smoothly on the ground.

"I did it!" I cried out happily, my cheeks beginning to feel sore from smiling so big. Kankuro returned my smile and gave my hand a playful squeeze before letting go. I jumped at him in a hug. "Thank you!"

His chest vibrated with laughter as he held me to him. "You're welcome. Next, I'm going to teach you how to control marionettes."

"What?" I exclaimed, pulling back a little to look at his face.

"I'm joking. That takes years to learn."

()()()

"She's asleep, isn't she?" I heard Kankuro ask Kyan. As it began to get dark, I found myself unable to move. I remained on the grass, my eyes closed in a relaxed way, next to Kankuro.

I heard rustling and suddenly I was lifted off the ground and placed against something firm. Hair tickled my face and I realized I had been placed on Kankuro's back. He wrapped his arms around my legs, bringing them closer to his stomach, and Kyan's petite hands moved my arms so they were dangling over his shoulders.

"I was surprised she was able to do it so quickly," he told Kyan, falling into the rhythmic bounce of his steps. "It took me at least a week to learn this. Baki used to get so frustrated with me." I suppose Kyan mouthed "why," because he continued talking. "When I was in the academy back in Suna, and even when we were placed into teams when we became Genin, I was always the last one to get the hang of the lessons. I was always the slowest. Those stupid brats always teased me for it."

I felt sorry for him. I'd never really been teased by my peers. Probably because I was the quiet one who never drew much attention. The only one who ever gave me any problems was Kiba and that was because I wouldn't let him copy my work.

"Oh, she's asleep," Mother's voice said. We must have arrived at my house. "Could you take her up to her room?"

"Of course," Kankuro replied.

I heard my creaky door open and I was softly placed on my bed. It felt a lot better than the grass I'd been on.

I expected Kankuro to just turn and leave, but instead he sighed. I knew he was the only one in the room, because I couldn't hear anyone else behind him. Even though Kyan was mute, she was pretty noisy.

"Good night, Haketa," he whispered. I felt the edge of my bed cave in from pressure and suddenly, skin was pressed against my lips. Wait, not just skin. Another set of lips.

When they were gone, I mentally screamed at myself to open my eyes or lift a finger or anything! But I couldn't. My body was too physically exhausted. I gave up when I heard the door close and my mother tell Kankuro, "Good night!"

It ran through my head over and over again. Kankuro had just kissed me.

Oh, goodness.


	8. Family Issues

For three weeks, I spent almost everyday with Kankuro. He never mentioned the kiss or showed any sign of more-than-friend affection toward me. I was too scared to bring it up, though. I didn't want him to know I had been awake when it happened.

During those days, we spent a lot of time practicing jutsus. Kankuro had even taught me how to make duplicates of myself, which terrified my mother when five Haketas suddenly walked into the restaurant.

Speaking of Mother, she had completely embarrassed me in front of Kankuro one lazy day. We had been sitting around the front steps of the house, feeling lethargic because of the heat, when she came out and commented, "So, this is what young love looks like today. Teenagers sweating on my steps."

But Kankuro had only laughed and nudged my leg, which I didn't realize why until later that night. I brushed it off though, telling myself it was an accident.

"I can't believe its in a week," Kankuro whispered as we laid next to each other on my bed.

"I know," I replied, staring at the ceiling. One more week and I'd have to say goodbye to him. I completely dreaded that. "I'm just glad Mother gave Kyan and me the next two weeks off to go watch it."

He sighed dramatically and rolled so his head was on my stomach. "Okay, how much money are you willing to take so you won't go?"

"How much do you have?" I asked with a smile. His eyebrows raised and I stuck my tongue out at him. "I'm joking. We're going, so just accept it."

My stomach suddenly growled very loudly and his head shot off it. He gave me an odd look and I only shrugged.

"See? Even my tummy agrees."

()()()

"I have to tell her," Kankuro whispered to himself as he sat alone at the hotel later that night. All day, it had been repeating in his mind.

The nerve-wrecked boy sat on the bed, burying his face in his palms as he leaned over. The anxiety prevented him from eating. Every time he tried, it would just come back up.

"I can't tell her," he contradicted. "Temari was right. If I told her, it would ruin the entire plan. Then everyone would point their fingers at me."

It felt like his body wouldn't allow him to sit still. He stood from the bed and moved to the window, leaning the side of his head against the edge.

"But what if she gets hurt because I didn't tell her?" A frustrated groan flew from his lips as he rested his elbows against the wall, hiding his head between them. "Damn, this sucks…"

()()()

"Shikamaru!" I called the next day, waving to the lazy boy from my window the day before the finals. Kankuro had told me he couldn't see me today, so I had nothing better to do than to bother the locals.

"Hey," he replied, giving me a quick flick of the wrist. I noticed he held a fruit basket securely in his hand.

"Who's that for?"

"Choji," he answered. "Damn kid is in the hospital. I decided to bring it to him."

"Hold on! I want to come!"

I closed my window roughly on accident. The glass between the wood shook and I froze, waiting for it to shatter. After a moment, I sighed in relief and hurried downstairs, slipping my zori on before meeting Shikamaru outside.

"So, why is he in the hospital?" I questioned on the way there, watching a lone bird fly in circles.

"Indigestion," he replied with a smirk. "He ate too much barbeque and ended up there."

"Of course. What else would he end in the hospital for?"

()()()

"What do you mean he's not allowed to have it?" I snapped at the receptionist. She flinched back slightly, but quickly regained her composure.

"I-I'm sorry, but Choji isn't allowed any outside food."

"Well, that was a waste," Shikamaru mumbled, eyeing the fruit disdainfully.

I sighed and for some unknown reason, my gaze wandered to a large file on the desk. At the corner, the words "Uzumaki, Naruto" were sloppily written. I looked back up at the woman's face.

"Can we see Naruto, then?" I asked, annoyance obvious in my voice. She nodded and pointed us down the hall after telling us he hadn't been awake for three days.

"Thanks, lady," Shikamaru hissed as we walked away.

()()()

"Haketa?" Naruto called, snapping me out of my daze. I'd been staring out the window so long, I'd forgotten about him and Shikamaru, who had been waiting for him to wake up.

"How long have you been awake?" I asked, feeling extremely stupid. He was already out of bed, holding the basket.

"About five minutes. Are you going to come with us? We're going to eat this in front of Choji."

"That's mean, you guys, but I have nothing else to do."

We wandered around the halls, trying to find Choji's room. Naruto told us repeatedly that he knew which room it was, but it felt as if we circled the entire building at least three times.

"Its this one!" he told us, grabbing the handle and pulling it open. I had to cover my mouth to keep from screaming.

We had entered the wrong room, but I was glad we did. Gaara stood over Lee, his hand held out above his face. Sand slowly crawled onto the blankets, moving toward the unconscious boy's throat. Shikamaru gently pushed me out of the way and performed a hand sign. His shadow extended toward Gaara's until they became one and the sand stopped moving.

"What do you think you're doing?" Naruto yelled, jumping at Gaara and punching him right on his cheek. As Gaara moved in reaction to it, Shikamaru grunted and moved the same way.

"Naruto, don't do that!" Shikamaru scolded. "I can feel everything he feels!"

I watched Gaara's face crack where he'd been punched. Sand fell from his skin. I couldn't look away.

"G-Gaara," I stuttered, taking a step closer to my best friend's brother. "What are you doing to Lee?"

Sand slithered out from the small hole at the top of the gourd, moving around Lee's face threateningly. Gaara stared at me, his face expressionless, and turned the rest of his body to face us. Beside me, I heard Shikamaru gasp. Gaara wasn't supposed to be able to move.

"I wanted to kill him," he finally answered.

"Why?" Shikamaru demanded to know. "You won your match against him. Do you have another goal or something?" I focused on Lee, eyeing the cuts and bruises that covered his face. Gaara had done that?

"No, I don't. I want to kill him because…" He trailed off for a moment, thinking about his next words. "…because I just want to kill him."

My body involuntarily shivered at his words. How could Gaara be so different from Kankuro? After all, they were brothers. Other than a few physical features, shouldn't they have some of the same personality quirks, too?

"Do you even know what you're saying?" Naruto screamed, pointing a finger at him.

The redhead remained silent for the longest time. I began to wonder if he even heard Naruto's question. Slowly, his black-rimmed eyes shifted to Lee, then back to us.

"If you keep getting in my way, I'll kill the three of you," he threatened. I resisted the urge to grab the two boys and drag them out of the room.

"Do it, then!" Naruto challenged, raising a fist. I covered his mouth with my right hand and punched his head with my left.

"You know," Shikamaru said gently, "I've seen you fight. You're pretty strong, but Naruto and I have some techniques you haven't seen yet. I'm sure Haketa is pretty fiesty with a kunai, too." My mouth hit the floor at that comment. "So, it would be three against one with the odds in our favor. If you leave now without hurting Lee, we can just forget about this whole thing. No harm done. You obviously weren't raised right, so we'll let you off with some slack."

Gaara's eyes narrowed at him in an irritated way. "I'll say it once more. Keep getting in my way and I'll kill you."

Naruto moved away from my hand that was covering his mouth and smirked. "You can't kill me!"

"Shut up!" I growled, stomping on his foot. He didn't even wince.

"Naruto, did you forget? This kid has monster strength!"

"Who cares? I've got a _real_ monster inside me," he replied, as if he was proud of that fact. "I won't lose to someone like _him._"

Gaara seemed pleased by his words. He tilted his head to the side a bit. "A monster, huh?" he repeated. "You aren't the only one with a monster inside."

"What?" I whispered, trying to keep my legs from shaking.

"Just like he said," Gaara replied, glancing at Shikamaru. "I wasn't raised right. During my birth, I killed the one who was meant to be my 'mother.' To create the world's strongest Shinobi, my father used ninjutsu to infuse an incarnation of sand to me. I was born a monster." His eyes locked to mine. "Kankuro didn't mention that fact to you, did he?"

Suddenly, every pair of eyes in that room (except Lee's) were glued to my body. I shook my head slowly at Gaara, but I wasn't upset with Kankuro for not telling me. If Kyan had been in Gaara's shoes, I would want to hide that, too.

He continued, "It is known as Shukaku, the spirit of a former elder that had been sealed inside a teakettle."

Shikamaru smirked, much to my surprise. "A possession jutsu that causes the fetus to be forcibly possessed? That's going too far. That's just twisted love."

"Love?" Gaara growled, his voice full of hate. "Don't judge me by your pathetic standards. Family? Nothing but simple forms of flesh, connected by hatred and murderous intents."

"That's a lie," I told him, a sudden spurt of courage filling my body. "That's not what family is. Families love you and take care of you."

"You're blind, girl," Gaara insulted. "My mother's life was sacrificed so that I could be brought into the world as the village's greatest weapon and the Kazekage's son. My father continuously taught me secret Shinobi skills, then left me to myself, usually away from my siblings and other villagers. I was spoiled and overprotected. For a while, I thought _that_ was love. Until the incident."

"The incident?" I urged. He only stared at me, though, without saying a word.

"What happened?" Naruto yelled. The corners of Gaara's mouth slowly pulled into a terrorizing grin.

"For the past six years, since my sixth birthday, my father has tried to kill me countless times," he informed us, as if he was telling us a joke. My heart plummeted into my stomach. I felt like puking.

"You just said he spoiled you!" Shikamaru said. "What do you mean by that?"

"A presence that is too powerful eventually becomes feared. Because I was born through justu, my mind became unstable at a young age. The villagers soon realized I had…emotional problems. To my father, as his position as the Kazekage, I was the village's most powerful asset, but at the same time, I was a dangerous object. So, by the time I turned six, they decided I was a great liability. Before that, I was only handled with care, just like any other unsafe tool."

I moved away from Naruto, holding myself back from approaching Gaara. I felt so terrible for him. If I had not been so scared, I would've told him so.

"To them, I am a relic of the past they wish to erase and forget," Gaara said. "So, why do I exist? Why do I continue living? At first, when I asked myself that, I had no answer. But while I live, I need a reason. After years of searching, I finally found the answer. I exist to kill humans other than myself."

He was beginning to make me angry. How could he be so self-centered about all this? He was acting like the entire world revolved around him, or at least, it should.

"And what exactly do you mean by that?" I snapped. His smirk finally disappeared and the emotionless persona returned.

"Living in constant fear of being killed, I found an inner peace. By killing those who tried to kill me, I was able to find a reason to live and prove my existence. I fight for myself and love only myself. As long as there are people out there for me to kill, then I will not cease to exist."

We stood in silence for a long while. I didn't know what to think at that point. There was obviously something terribly wrong inside Gaara's head and there didn't seem to be a way to make him think otherwise.

Naruto, who began to tremble, let out a low growl.

"Naru-"

"Oh, crap!" Shikamaru breathed, looking up at the sand that had risen from the gourd. It was slowly moving toward us.

"Now, help me feel alive!" Gaara shouted as the sand lurched at us. But it dropped to the ground when the door opened and Lee's sensei, Guy, glared at him.

"That's enough," he said fearlessly. "The finals start tomorrow. Don't be so anxious."

The sand retreated back into the gourd and Gaara flinched, his hand springing up to hold his head. He began walking toward the door, breaking Shikamaru's hold on his shadow, and turned to face us.

"I will kill you."

The door closed and we stood motionless, until my hand raced up to cover my mouth. I ran toward the bathroom door and kicked it open, followed by Guy, who grabbed my hair as I fell to my knees and leaned over the toilet.

How could Kankuro and Temari live with that?


	9. Secrets Don't Make Friends

"Are you ready?" I asked, jumping onto Kankuro's back as we walked down an alley. The finals started at three in the afternoon, meaning I had two hours to spend time with him.

Kankuro didn't say anything as his arms looped around my legs. I rested my head on his shoulder and wrapped my arms around his neck.

"What's wrong?" I finally whispered, moving my chin to the top of his head. He rounded a corner that led to a dead end and released my legs, allowing me to slide off his back. I should have been scared when he grabbed the sides of my face, but I wasn't.

"Please, don't come," Kankuro mumbled. We'd had this argument before. He was dead-set on trying to get me to stay home during the finals, but then again, I was dead-set on going to watch. Kyan was, too. We both wanted to support not just him, but all the Konohagakure Shinobi that advanced.

"You're going to lose this little disagreement, right?" I replied, reaching up to grab his wrists. He rested his forehead on mine, which was a normal thing for him to do. Over the past month and a half or so, I'd learned most of what was normal for him to do. Being quiet was definitely not one of them. "Why, Kankuro? Why don't you want us to come?"

As we stared each other down so close, he looked incredibly threatening, like he was glowering at me. "If…If something happens," he said softly, "I don't want you to see me get hurt."

"You're a _Shinobi. _Getting hurt is part of that. Even if I saw it, I wouldn't think less of yo-"

I completely stopped breathing when he cut me off with his own lips. I just stood there, motionless, eyes wide, until he pulled away. I realized then that I hadn't even tried to kiss him back.

"Sorry," he mumbled, turning away from me. "We should get going. Temari is probably at the hotel, waiting for us."

He began walking and I hurried to catch up with him, slipping my hand into his. He stopped, looked down at our hands, then up at my face. I smiled, knowing my face was as red as its ever been, and leaned up, pressing my lips to his.

"You're right," I said after backing away. His hand tightened around mine. "She probably is."

()()()

"Where's Gaara?" Temari hissed to herself for the tenth time. I watched her pace the floor in front of the beds, nervously chewing on her fingernails. She had already changed into her usual Kunoichi attire and was more than ready to leave.

"He'll be here," Kankuro reassured her as he adjusted his hat. He glanced at me through the mirror, sneaking a quick wink at me. I hid my grin and looked away.

"We have half an hour to get there, Kankuro. What if he doesn't show up?"

"He'll be here," he repeated, moving toward the bathroom. "Calm down. Haketa, can you come help me with something?"

I nodded and hopped off the edge of the bed, following him to the bathroom. Kankuro gently pushed the door so it wouldn't close all the way, but still gave us some privacy.

Once one of the beds creaked from Temari's weight, he turned toward me and pressed his lips to my forehead. I looked at him, baffled.

"Wha-" I started, but he covered my mouth with his hand and raised a finger to his lips. "What did you need help with?" I mouthed.

"Nothing," he mouthed back, shaking his head.

The next five minutes flew by in a blur. Keeping each other quiet so Temari wouldn't hear the laughing and the kissing was the hardest part. However, once I'd found the "spot" on his neck, I couldn't keep myself from kissing and nibbling on it. I thought he would make his own bottom lip bleed from biting down on it so hard to keep himself quiet.

The bed creaked again and we hurried away from each other. Kankuro fixed his hat for the fourth time and I sat on the edge of the counter, holding the purple-covered kabuki brush in my hand, moving it toward his face.

"What are you guys doing?" Temari asked, pushing the door open. She had the look of I-know-you-two-were-doing-something-but-I'm-not-quite-sure-what-it-is-yet on her face.

"She keeps messing up," Kankuro lied. "I told her she could put it on me once, but so far, we've had to start over twice."

"Kankuro, look at me," she ordered. There was a strange tone in her voice.

Kankuro made quick eye-contact with me, and then turned to face his sister. She glared at his neck, then pointed to it.

"Tema-"

"What the _hell_ is that?" she screeched. "Is that a hickey?"

"No!" Kankuro defended, his hand rushing up to cover the mark I didn't realize that I had left on him. "It's just a bruise!"

My hands began to shake, so I placed all the items on the counter next to me. Temari rolled her eyes disbelievingly.

"That's the excuse _everyone_ uses! What if Gaara sees that? He knows Haketa is the only girl you've been around since we've been here!"

I wanted to interject and say he'd been with my sister, too, but I didn't think that would help the argument any at this point.

"Gaara's twelve. He doesn't know what a hickey is!"

"He's not _stupid_!"

I sat there and listened to them bicker until the door opened up. A tall man with half his face covered by a white cloth walked in with Gaara at his side. The redhead glared daggers at me, which I tried to avoid.

"Who is this?" the man asked, jutting his chin in my direction. My eyes settled on the Sunagakure headband connected to the head wrap.

Kankuro positioned his hat in a way so his neck was mostly covered and stood to face the man. They were about the same height.

"Baki-sensei, this is Haketa, a friend of Temari's and mine," Kankuro explained. I planted my feet on the floor and stood next to him, holding my hand out to Baki.

"Its nice to meet you, sir," I mumbled. Baki glanced down at my hand, then at my face. I winced slightly when he grabbed my hand. He shook it as if I was a grown man, too.

"We need to go," Baki told his students. Gaara's eyes were still locked onto my figure. "Lord Kazekage is already here. You should know its not wise to keep your father waiting."

Kankuro scoffed, returning to the kabuki paint situation. He swiftly ran the brush on his face, creating tricky designs while making it look easy. "Yeah, we know," he muttered darkly.

()()()

I walked with the team to the large area west of the village, meeting Kyan at the visitor entrance. Kankuro told his sensei and siblings to give him a minute and I told my sister the same and to save a spot for me. She simply nodded and walked away.

"Good luck," I told him as we caught each other in a hug. "Do you know who you're fighting?"

"Some kid named Aburame Shino," he mumbled against my skin. We backed away, keeping a firm hold on each other's hands. "Temari is fighting a double match against Nara Shikamaru and a Sound Shinobi named Dosu, and Gaara is up against that Uchiha kid who threw that rock at me."

"It was a pebble," I teased. Usually when we had this argument, we would both be laughing and pretending to be upset with each other. But this time, he just watched me with a strange kind of sadness in his eyes.

He lifted a hand and rested it on my cheek. I grabbed his wrist gently, but for some reason, I couldn't bring myself to ask what was wrong.

"I have to go now," he told me, his voice strangely deeper than normal. He kissed my forehead, then my nose, then finally my lips. I held myself to him desperately, almost scared to let go.

He didn't seem to mind. His right arm snaked around my waist, pulling me closer, and his left trailed up my back and my neck. His fingers gently tangled themselves in my hair. When we finally broke away, we both were panting a bit. I expected to find the paint around his lips to be smeared, but it wasn't.

"Kankuro," I whispered when he tried to walk toward an opening in the arena. My hand automatically tightened around his. He stared at me, waiting for more words, but it took me a while.

"What is it?"

"I love you," I finally said. My stomach was twisted painfully from being so nervous.

An odd look formed on his face and he took a step closer to me. "Haketa," he mumbled, kissing my forehead again. "Don't say that."

My mouth fell open. I instantly felt the sting of rejection in my gut and tears began to form. "What?"

"Don't cry," he told me softly. "Its not that I don't feel the same way, because I do. Just…don't tell me that."

He didn't say anything more. My hand fell from his and he turned and walked away. I stood there for a few moments before walking the other way to meet my sister.

My entire body hurt with denial. At that point, I wanted to run home and cry into my pillow, but I told him I'd be there to support him and that's what I was going to do.

Before I ended up in the seated section, I passed a staircase, where Kankuro stood dressed in a royal-looking blue and white outfit with two heavily-armored Shinobi. Confused, I walked closer to him and called his name.

When he looked at me, I stopped walking, realizing I'd gotten the wrong person. He looked exactly like Kankuro, except a bit taller and heavier-looking. Also, he looked a lot meaner.

"Lord Kazekage, they're going to start soon," one of the Shinobi said. The Kazekage grabbed the large hat (which looked a lot like Lord Hokage's did) and nodded.

"Yes, let's hurry," he told him before walking up the stairs to where Lord Hokage was sitting. It was almost scary of how much Kankuro looked like his father. I shook it off, though, and hurried to my sister.

()()()

Kankuro leaned against the concrete walls, closing his eyes tightly. Words rang through his head over and over again, each time more painful than the one before.

"_Kankuro, I love you."_

"I'm sorry, Haketa," he whispered to himself. "I wish I could have told you, but it would have ruined everything."

"Kankuro, hurry up!" Temari called from the end of the corridor. He nodded and walked toward her, quickly licking his lips.

"_Kankuro, I love you."_

()()()

"Where is he?" I shouted to Kyan over the crowd. Luckily, she nabbed two of the closest seats to the circular battle area.

Her hand pointed to a black figure, which I soon realized to be Kankuro. He stood in a line with Gaara, Temari, Naruto, Neji, Shikamaru, and Shino. Sasuke seemed to be missing from the group.

"Do you think he's nervous?" I questioned. Kyan rolled her eyes and nodded quickly.

A sudden hush fell over the arena and Lord Hokage stood up from the shaded area where he and Lord Kazekage sat. He smiled and extended his arms toward us all.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" his voice boomed. "We welcome and thank you for gathering here in Konohagakure for the Chuunin selection examinations! We will now begin the matches of the final rounds between the eight candidates who advanced in the preliminaries! Please sit back and enjoy!"

A roar of clapping arose from the people watching. Cheers for Naruto were loud behind me, so I turned to see Sakura and Ino sitting next to each other, looking almost friendly. Sakura seemed to have cut her hair since the last time I saw her.

"Match one!" the proctor who stood in front of the line of fighters called. "Uzumaki Naruto and Neji Hyuuga!"

"Oh man," Ino mumbled. "Naruto doesn't stand a chance against Neji."

"You'd be surprised," Sakura replied.

I brought my attention back to the fighting zone. Naruto and Neji stood, facing each other, while the others walked off toward the exit to watch. Before beginning, Naruto bent down and grabbed a fist-full of dirt, holding it out to Neji, but the grains fell through the spaces between his fingers.

"Begin!" Lord Hokage called out.

Neji automatically crouched into the usual Hyuuga position and said something to upset Naruto, who instantly took a stance I was now familiar with. Clones began to appear, but Neji moved too fast for them.

He kicked and punched and threw them off until only the original stood, but Naruto made more, which confused me. Wouldn't he just use up more Chakra?

Beside me, I noticed Kyan's leg bouncing nervously. Why was she so edgy? It was beginning to affect me, too.

Down in the fighting zone, Neji had just spun in circles, or at least, that's what it looked like. All the Naruto clones were gone, leaving only one. Everything was still for a moment, until the Hyuuga lunged at him. He moved faster than I was able to keep up with, punching and kicking Naruto over and over. Naruto fell to the ground, motionless.

"Oh, no," Sakura and Ino both said behind me. I brought my hand up to cover my mouth. Kyan covered her eyes. "There's no way he survived that."

"Look!" I told them, pointing to the orange clad boy. He was slowly making his way onto his feet, trembling violently.

They faced each other for a long time, obviously talking. I wished I knew what they were saying.

Neji's hand moved up to take off his headband, showing Naruto something that surprised him.

"Your fate is to lose to me," Neji said, just loud enough for the people to hear. "You can't change it."

He leapt at Naruto, using both palms to send him flying about twenty feet. He landed on his side in the dirt. Like before, he didn't move, giving the impression that he was dead.

Once Neji turned to leave, however, Naruto rose to his feet. I began to hate this match. Neji certainly was one for talking in between punches.

I suppose Naruto grew tired of it, too, because he pulled his hands into a hand sign and a beautiful crimson Chakra flow surrounded him. The crowd around me began to murmur with questions and praise for him.

Kyan curled into a ball, hiding her face, when the Chakra turned into whip-like objects. It resembled the paintings I'd seen of the Kyuubi that everyone knew had been sealed inside Naruto.

Naruto unexpectedly disappeared from the spot he'd been standing and reappeared in the air. I smiled and jumped to my feet, along with Ino and Sakura, to cheer as loud as possible for him.

Senbon and kunai knives began hurling toward Neji, but he performed his rotation Jutsu again, deflecting them. Once he stopped, they dashed toward each other. The loud sound of metal smacking against each other made my ears hurt.

After skidding to a stop, they both yelled something at each other, and ran again. They stopped, both of their Chakra pushing against the other, until an explosion of dirt and leaves left everyone blind to the battle. When it finally cleared, two holes in the ground were the only things that stood.

"Which one is Naruto?" Sakura yelled beside me.

"How should we know?" Ino replied.

A moment passed and a hand emerged from the hole closest to us. My heart plummeted when Neji pulled himself from it, looking worn and dirty. He limped to Naruto's hole and loudly called him a failure.

The ground underneath Neji crumbled and Naruto shot out of it, punching him square in the jaw. The Naruto that had been in the hole disappeared in smoke. Neji lay still on the ground, glaring at Naruto, who looked as if he was about to pass out at any second.

"The winner is Uzumaki Naruto!" a loud voice said.

The arena erupted into cheers and clapping. I looked around, seeing that some people were crying because they were so happy for him. Kyan had jumped to her feet, clapping and blowing on a whistle that she had brought along.

We watched as the Medical Shinobi hurried out with a stretcher that they placed Neji onto. Sakura, Ino, Kyan, and I waved to him as they carried him away and I think I saw him lift a finger in our direction.

Fifteen minutes passed and people started to get restless. They started shouting to the proctors, asking when the next match was going to start.

"Everyone!" one of the proctors called out, forcing the arena to be silent. "One of the fighters for the next match hasn't arrived yet! So, this match will be postponed! We will proceed with the next scheduled match!"

"Hey!" Shikamaru's voice boomed. I glanced around for a bit until I found him standing with all the other fighters. Temari and Kankuro were looking especially nervous. "You mean my match has been moved up?"

Ignoring him, the proctor looked toward Lord Hokage. "The next match is Kankuro against Aburame Shino! Please come down, you two!"

I watched Shino move toward the entrance, but Kankuro didn't follow. He raised his hand slowly, then shut his eyes. "I withdraw!" he called.

"WHAT?" I screamed, gripping onto the bars that prevented people from falling over. Kyan wrapped her arms around my waist and tried to pull me back. Once his eyes opened, he looked at me and shrugged.

"Well then," the proctor said awkwardly, "we'll move onto the next! Temari against Nara Shikamaru!"


	10. I Hate You

I returned to my seat, my arms crossed over my chest. I was furious. How could Kankuro just back out like that? Is that why he didn't want me to come?

I didn't even watch Temari and Shikamaru's match. I ignored the heavy gusts of wind that flew by. They only messed up my hair.

"Shikamaru's got her now!" Ino cried out happily. I jumped up from the seat and peered over the metal bars. She was right; Temari was stuck in Shikamaru's shadow.

It seemed that he used the shadows from the two holes Neji and Naruto made to grab onto Temari's shadow. He held her frozen the same way he did to Gaara.

Everyone watched in silence as Shikamaru started walking toward her, making her do the same. Both their hands slowly rose into the air and I braced myself for something extremely violent to happen.

"That's it!" Shikamaru called. "I quit!"

"The winner is Temari!"

Everyone's mouths fell open and Ino growled. "What the heck, Shikamaru? You had her!" she shouted to her teammate. He glanced in our direction and shrugged, releasing Temari's shadow.

"What is with everyone giving up?" Sakura mumbled to herself. Kyan stood motionless, as if waiting for the match to resume.

From the fighter's waiting area, Naruto jumped down and pointed a finger at Shikamaru, calling him names. Temari, who seemed just as surprised as anyone, gave me a quick glimpse before returning to her brothers, one of which I was still tremendously upset with.

"WHERE'S UCHIHA?" a random man in the crowd shouted. Sasuke still hadn't showed up and Sakura was obviously worried. She nibbled on her fingernails in the same way Temari had earlier.

"Stop that," I told her, lightly slapping her hand down. "You'll make your nails look gross."

"Where's Sasuke?" she asked me.

Just as she finished talking, Kyan pulled on my shirt, pointing down to where Shikamaru and Naruto stood. A whirlwind of leaves appeared, revealing two figures in the middle. I sighed in relief, bowing my head in Kakashi and Sasuke's direction.

"Sasuke!" Ino and Sakura called happily at the same time.

"That is just like Sasuke," a voice remarked from behind us. We all turned to see Lee standing with the help of a crutch next to Guy.

"Lee!" I greeted, turning to hug him. He caught me in an awkward embrace, wincing slightly. "Oh crap," I mumbled, backing away. "Sorry."

Sakura, Ino, and Kyan remained standing while Lee and I sat next to each other. "Sasuke is fighting Gaara, is he not?" he asked quietly.

I nodded slowly. "I know Sasuke is a good fighter, but I'm worried. When you were in the hospital-"

"I know," he interrupted. "Guy-sensei told me. I, too, worry for Sasuke."

"Man, that kid is freaky," Ino commented, looking down at Gaara.

My gaze moved to Kyan, who had an odd look on her face. The last time she had that look was when a very attractive man came into the restaurant. She kept refilling his drinks.

"Oh, man," I muttered, burying my face in my hand. "Not Gaara, Kyan…"

"What is it?" Lee asked. I shook my head, thankful that the cheers started up before I had to explain to him.

I stood up and returned to my sister's side, nudging her elbow roughly. When she looked up at me, I could see the pink tint on her cheeks.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura called from behind me. I wanted to turn around and greet him, but I was too focused on the match.

As soon as the proctor called the match into progress, sand slithered out from the opening in the gourd. Sasuke hurriedly leapt away from it, but Gaara winced in pain and held his head the same way he did in the hospital.

"Mother," Gaara hissed to himself, but loud enough for everyone else to hear, "I gave you some bad blood earlier, didn't I? I'm sorry. But don't worry. I promise this time, it'll be tasty blood."

What the heck? He was talking to their mother? How was that even possible? She had died giving birth to him. It just didn't make sense.

My gaze moved to his siblings. Temari had her face buried in her hands and Kankuro was gripping onto the bars tightly, his eyes glued to his brother.

Gaara winced once more and the pain in his head seemed to have disappeared. He glared up at Sasuke and exhaled slowly. "Come."

Sasuke reached into the pouch connected to his leg and pulled Shuriken from it, flinging them at Gaara. From the sand, an exact replica sprouted and caught them between his fingers. Sasuke began attacking the sand clone, throwing more weapons and kicking and punching until he vanished from sight.

"What?" I heard Lee mutter from behind me.

Suddenly, Sasuke was behind Gaara. The redhead turned slightly, only to be punched in the cheek and sent flying a few feet. When he regained himself, his face was cracking.

"If you're not going to come to me, then I'll come to you!" Sasuke shouted, running at the boy again.

As he continued to beat Gaara, Kyan seemed to shrink away from the bars. I knew she didn't want to watch him get injured, but it still seemed odd to me. She didn't know the kid. Why was she so wrapped up in him?

"Kyan, look," I told her, putting my hand on her back. "Gaara's okay."

It seemed he really was. He stood in a Jutsu stance, pulling his hands together. A dome of sand began to surround him, but Sasuke took the opportunity to attack. He ran toward the dome, but when he went to punch through it, spikes formed in his direction, nicking his cheek and shoulder.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto's voice called from behind us. I turned to face him and Shikamaru, who were panting heavily. "You have to stop this match!"

"Why would I do that?" Kakashi asked lazily.

"Gaara's not normal! He's not like the rest of us! He lives to kill other people!" Naruto pointed a finger at me. "Haketa can back me up on this!"

"Don't worry, Naruto," Kakashi replied. "There's a reason why we were late."

I looked over toward Temari and Kankuro. Temari was still watching the match through her fingers, but Kankuro was looking straight at me.

"Leave," he mouthed. I shook my head. If something was going to happen, I wanted to be there to help stop it.

Ignoring Kankuro (yes, I was still livid), I focused on the floating eyeball above Gaara's sand shield. Sasuke ran at it and attempted to kick it, but nothing happened. My eyes followed him as he moved back, jumping up backwards onto the concrete wall.

Behind me, Naruto and Sakura began questioning Kakashi, but I blocked them out, watching Sasuke make hand signs. He held his palms downward when a brilliant blue Chakra ball formed, oddly resembling lightening. The sound of chirping birds could be heard from his direction.

With incredible speed, he sprinted toward Gaara. The spikes started to form again, but they were too slow. Sasuke swung his glowing hand into the sand, penetrating the defense. The unfinished spikes stopped moving and started to fall onto the ground.

There was a long silence, and then Gaara's scream filled the arena. Kyan covered her ears and fell to her knees, tears falling onto the floor. I kneeled down next to her, holding her close.

"BLOOD! ITS MY BLOOD!" Gaara screamed.

Sasuke tried pulling his arm from the sand, but it had a tight hold on him. He yelled in pain until finally, he was able to pull himself free. A strange claw followed him, then quickly retreated back to Gaara.

The dome started to crack then completely fell on top of Gaara, who was holding his bleeding shoulder. I started at the boy until a solitary feather slowly drifted in front of my face.

"A feather?" I whispered, reaching up to grab it. My body suddenly felt very heavy, like I was relaxed. I was falling asleep.

I gasped when Sakura grabbed onto my shoulder and shouted, "Kai! Release!"

The drowsy feeling snapped away as quickly as it came. I stood up, stepping over my sleeping sister, and looked toward Kankuro. He and Temari had rushed to their brother's aide.

Speaking of Gaara, he was doubled over, shaking and holding his head in pain. Baki appeared next to his students and ordered them to take Gaara and run. Kankuro lifted his brother to his feet, shot me a quick glare, and jumped out of the arena with Temari. Sasuke was right on their tail.

I hurried to a nearby Shinobi, who had fallen to the ground in sleep. After searching his person for a moment, I found a lone kunai. There was no way in hell I was going to let Kankuro get away.

"Where's Sasuke?" Sakura demanded to know. Just before I had the chance to tell her, two Sound Shinobi appeared before us.

Kakashi leapt toward them, slicing their faces with a kunai in each hand. "You two stay down for a little while! Guy and I will take out as many as we can!"

We obeyed him, falling to the ground and pretending to be unconscious. I failed at it, though. The tears gave my position away. When I opened my eyes, I saw Sakura watching me with concern on her face.

"Its okay, Haketa," she whispered to me.

"Sakura, Kankur-"

"I know. I know all about it."

I wanted to break down into hysterical cries right there, but I didn't have time. Kakashi knelt down beside us and ordered Sakura to undo the Genjustsu on Naruto and Shikamaru. He personally gave us an A-ranked mission to track down Gaara and help Sasuke.

"You'll need this little guy," he told us, performing a hand sign on a lifeless body. A small poof of smoke arose to reveal a small dog. "Pakkun will track down Sasuke's scent."

"A dog?" I questioned.

"Hurry up!" Kakashi yelled, throwing a kunai into the forehead of an enemy Shinobi. We crawled toward Naruto, who was drooling a river. Sakura woke him up the same way she did me.

"Stay down!" she ordered when he tried to stand up. "I'll explain everything later!"

We hurried to Shikamaru, who I noticed was twitching. Before Sakura could do anything, Pakkun trotted over to him and chomped down on his leg, sending him flying up.

"Ow!" he yelled, kicking the dog off.

"Shikamaru!" Sakura yelled. "You knew how to reverse the Genjutsu, too! Why were you pretending to be asleep?"

"No offense," he replied lazily, "but I don't care about what happens to Sasuke. I don't want to get involved in this crap."

"Haketa, move!" Naruto called just as I felt someone behind me. I doubled over, covering my head with my hands.

A loud explosion sounded from behind me. I turned to see that Guy had tackled a Sound Shinobi into the wall, making it crumble away. Kakashi appeared in front of us, glancing at Shikamaru and Naruto.

"Okay, here's your mission. Chase after Sasuke, help him, and stop Gaara! Then wait for new orders!"

"Did something happen to Sasuke?" Naruto asked, but Sakura grabbed his shirt.

"I'll explain on the way!"

Before I could follow them out of the hole, Kakashi grabbed onto the back of my shirt. "You go home," he ordered. "You've only received limited Shinobi training."

I slapped his hand off and shook my head. "I'm sorry, Kakashi, but I'm not your student. I have a personal goal to achieve."

Another Shinobi attacked him, so his attention was taken away from me. Shino appeared next to me, gazing out the hole.

"Where are you going, Shino?" I asked, trying to look at his eyes through his sunglasses.

"I'm going after Kankuro. We have an unfinished match to complete."

"I'm coming with you," I told him. "He and I have unfinished business."

He nodded and jumped from the hole, taking off toward the trees. I inhaled, doing as Kankuro told me to focus Chakra to the bottoms of my feet, and hurried after him.

I blinked tears away as we jumped from branch to branch, following the weapon trail that others had left. Traveling this way was much easier than running normally.

"Its Sasuke!" Shino called to me as we approached the Uchiha. He had stopped on a branch, facing only Kankuro.

"I guess I have no choice but to take you on!" Kankuro said in a cocky way, holding the puppet upright in his hand.

Shino and I landed on both sides of Sasuke. "No, I will be your opponent," Shino informed the puppet master.

"I will be, too," I added. Tears of hurt and frustration stung my eyes, but I held the kunai firmly in my hand.

"Haketa," Sasuke mumbled. "Shino, what are you guys doing here? How'd you find us?"

"Before you left the arena, I planted female beetles on you. They give off a certain scent that only males of the same species can smell," Shino replied. "Go after Gaara. Haketa and I will deal with this one. It seems we both have business with him."

"Are you sure?"

"Give us ten minutes and we'll be there to help you," I told him, forcing a smile onto my face.

"I'll be done by then, too," he responded. "Good luck." With that, he was gone.

Shino and I faced Kankuro, who watched us carefully. "You're all a bunch of idiots," he insulted. "You have no idea what being scared truly is."

"I take it you're going to show us?" Shino said condescendingly, holding out his arms for his bugs to crawl on. I resisted the urge to shiver at the sight of them.

"No. If you take me down and go after them, then you'll see. But I doubt you two can do anything. Especially you," he said toward me.

I stood still, knowing he was trying to screw with my head. He put his hands together in a praying form in front of his face.

"Kugutsu no Jutsu!" he called out. The wrapping fell from Crow's body and the Chakra strings attached from his fingers to the puppet's body. It wrapped itself around his body, watching the two of us.

A horde of bugs surrounded Shino's arms, making annoying clicking noises. I whispered to him that I would distract Kankuro to give him an opportunity to attack.

I jumped toward the kabuki boy, my kunai positioned to stab at his chest, but as I expected, he moved his fingers to make Crow tackle me into a nearby tree. As my head smacked against the trunk of the tree, I cried out in pain, trying to be as dramatic as possible.

I watched as Crow attacked Shino's bugs, and then turned to look at Kankuro. "K-Kankuro!" I called out, throwing a whimper into it. He turned his head to look at me, bit down on his lower lip, looked back at Crow, then moved closer to me.

"Why didn't you listen to me when I told you to leave, Haketa?" he whispered, touching the back of my head. I tried not to freak out at the sight of my blood on his hand.

"I-I wanted to support you," I told him.

"Damn it," he growled. "I'm sorry I hurt you. Please get up and leave. I don't want to fight you."

From the corner of my eye, I saw Shino nod to me. I held my arms out toward Kankuro and when he embraced me, I buried my face under his hat, biting down hard on his neck. He cried out in pain, trying to throw me off, but I had a tight hold around his neck.

"Let go!" Shino ordered. I released him just in time for him to dodge Shino's punch.

They went after each other for a few minutes before a cloud of poison gas emerged from Kankuro's puppet. He used this opportunity to return to me. As he glared down at me, I saw his neck was heavily bleeding.

"I hate you," I whispered as he kneeled in front of me. "I trusted you, Kankuro, and you do this to my village. I hope you die in this battle." Tears fell from my eyes as I stared at his pained face. "I hate you."

"Good," he replied softly, kissing my forehead. "Keep telling yourself that, no matter what you really feel."

"Get away from her!" Shino yelled, lunging at him with the bugs.

I leaned back against the tree, feeling myself slowly slip from consciousness. As my vision blurred, I watched them attack back and forth until it was over. There was no more yelling or groans of pain. Just silence.

Everything turned black, then. For how long, I couldn't tell you. My entire body hurt. From my head to my toes, nothing but pain. Even my heart hurt.

Kankuro had betrayed me. He made me think I loved him, that I needed him. In the end, it was all planned out. I was nothing to him. Nothing but some girl to keep him company during his time in Konohagakure.

"Haketa, can you hear me?"

"She isn't responding. The poison knocked her out, Father." That was Shino's voice.

"W-Will she b-b-be okay?" Kyan? Kyan spoke?

My body was lifted from the hard wood of the tree. "We'll take her to the hospital. I hope its still standing."

()()()

I'd regained full consciousness a few hours after the attack. The village was left in ruins, but luckily, everyone close to me was alive. Even Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Shikamaru.

I sat up in the hospital bed two days later, trying to ignore the stupid IV they'd stuck in my arm. Because I wasn't able to leave the hospital, I missed Lord Hokage's memorial service. He had died trying to protect the village from Orochimaru, the mastermind behind the entire plan.

"Miss Haketa," the nurse called as she opened my door, "your sister is here to visit you."

Kyan walked in, dressed entirely in black. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying. A long sigh escaped her lips as she sat next to me.

"How did it go?" I asked her.

"De-Depressing," she stuttered. How she reclaimed her voice, we'll probably never know. "I st-still can't believe th-this happened."

"It'll be okay," I reassured her. "Konohagakure is a great village. We'll rebuild in no time."

Kyan looked at me with a piercing gaze only a sister could give. "Wh-What about Kan-Kankuro?"

"What about him? He's probably back in Suna right now, the lying bastard." I glared out the window, trying to hide my tears from my sister. The feeling of betrayal settled uncomfortably in my gut.

"I-It wasn't h-his f-f-fault," she defended. "He was f-following or-orders. We b-both kn-know he loves y-you and you f-feel the s-same way."

"No," I hissed through clenched teeth. "I hate him."

After all, Kankuro told me to tell myself that, no matter how I truly felt.

* * *

><p>And so the story comes to an end! I want to thank everyone who left reviews and who have followed this story since day one! ^^ It really means a lot to me!<p>

~Rezzalia

* * *

><p><strong>UPDATE 7-30-11:<strong>

Sequel: Just Fall has been posted. Rate and enjoy!


End file.
